One of the things i love about blogging is that I am more open to small moments of inspiration. Everything has the potential to become blog fodder and therefore I pay closer attention to the world around me. This is especially true when I am reading the blogs I follow. Yes I read them because I enjoy having a window into another person’s life, I read them because I have developed a level of friendship with many of their authors, but also because every so often something they write on their blog will resonate with me so strongly that I will be compelled to take their thought and follow it to my own conclusion.
I came home from work Sunday and, though I should’ve been doing homework, did a little surfing and tried to catch up on my subscribed reads. In Amused Grace Thalia writes about pulling a card representing the goddess Gaea for the coming week (btw isn’t this card gorgeous?!?) and the words of the Lady that came to her:
Find the parts of yourself that are dead and dying. Welcome them; listen to them, hear what they have to say … But let it decay. From decay, from rot, from compost spring the brightest, tallest, healthiest flowers.
My first thought was to remember a tomato plant I had in a home we lived in 7 years ago. When the end of the season came I pulled the old plants out of the planters they resided in but left a rotting tomato on the earth where it fell, partially because it was “gross” and I really didn’t want to deal with it and partially just to see what would happen. Winter came, snow fell, and that last tomato was long forgotten. However, in the spring grew a new plant in its stead – stronger and bearing more fruit that the original plant that bore it.
Those things that have died in our lives …. unfulfilled hopes, dreams not followed, grief we have endured, those pieces of ourselves that we have sacrificed to become who we are now …. are not dead and gone, they simply are seeds of what is to be. And these have the potential to be even more beautiful than what came before. But to allow these seeds to grow and blossom we have to be willing to bury those pieces in the earth. We have to be willing to let them go, to walk away, and trust that in time flowers (or trees or herbs or fruits) will grow.
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the time to plant will soon be upon us. Regardless of what form of the Divine your faith rests on, this is the time to “let go and let God/ess” … to trust that clinging to something long gone serves no purpose, to trust that much like that last tomato that even something battered, squashed, and rotting can give birth to something beautiful and meaningful and nourishing.
This is a perfect time to reflect on our own lives and to determine what dead bits of ourselves are we still clinging to? This is the perfect time to pick at least one that we can bury in fertile soil and see what will rise up in its stead.
What will you let go of this Spring?
Blessings
Mama Kelly
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By Ron on Mar 11, 2009 |
“Those things that have died in our lives …. unfulfilled hopes, dreams not followed, grief we have endured, those pieces of ourselves that we have sacrificed to become who we are now …. are not dead and gone, they simply are seeds of what is to be. And these have the potential to be even more beautiful than what came before.”
That is such a universal truth. As horrible as what I went through last summer was, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I knew that I knew that I knew that I was kept from dying for a reason.
Thanks for posting that. Always something good to remember.
Ron´s last blog post..Buddhist Beginnings – How I Found Tara or How She Found Me.
By Thalia on Mar 12, 2009 |
Sometimes I think that all religions come down to that one concept: the Seed.
By Karan on Mar 12, 2009 |
Thank you for such a thought provoking post – it’s so relevant to what’s been happening in my life recently. Don’t you just love it when the Universe sends these little pockets of wisdom and insight right when they’re needed? :0)
By Mama Kelly on Mar 13, 2009 |
Ron –
Yes that is part of the challenge, to look at our own dark sides, s**t we have gone through and realize that it is all part of us, that it all contains the potential to trigger growth, to bring forth new blessings.
Thalia -
Since it was your post that led me down this road it was especially nice to see you here. I have to agree that the one thing all religions share is “the Seed” – they all on some level want to trigger growth and change and transformation.
Karan –
Yes I do love those moments when the Universe seems to speak to me through someone’s blog, or a book, or a line of music. To know that I was such a moment for you … I am touched!!
May you all be blessed!
By Jo on Mar 13, 2009 |
I love this! I have heard something similar a couple of years ago and needed to be reminded of it again – that I need to let some things die so that greater growth can come. Thank you so much for putting this out there in such an eloquent way!