SleepingOrchid

Our Garden is an island in the universe that is Earth. As we travel, we soon find out that Earth itself is another Garden, almost too large for us to comprehend, containing many wonders. We are creatures of this planet that nourishes us; but who’s taking care of who? Gardens need a lot of care. The quality of the soil, timing and positioning of the plants, their symbiosis and synchronicity are critical. If we block the sun and clog the air with burning smoke we all suffer. Earth is our mother and we are her children. Mothers get old; they welcome renewal but they can’t last forever, so it is good to study sensible policies about health and healing. The key here is whether we even try to give back as much as we have received. If we make the effort, benefits will overflow.

What are our resources? What are the resources we may take for granted? Often, having earth under our feet and a roof over our head is something we barely even think about. Familiarity breeds contempt. Our vision stretches so far down the road to imagined “somedays” that we are impatient with “today”. It seems so modest, so ordinary. It isn’t until we really consider the people and places that have “always had our back” that we even form the words, “thank you.” Part of the reason we may lose interest in our humblest resources is that we’ve done nothing to deserve them. It’s embarrassing for us even to admit there are resources we have no control over, that come to us just by virtue of where we chance to live, or work, or who we’re related to. It makes sense to add them up and give thanks for them right now. Sometimes we find that we can assume the reins of these neglected resources after all; sharpen them up, improve them, modify and share them into an aspect of our life-plan after all. A good example is the rude health that often comes to all of us simply as part of our youth. We can’t rely on that forever! Are there ways that we abuse good health, good sleep, warm familial connections and may even be unconsciously reducing our future opportunities of enjoying them? Let’s make them part of our conscious plan today and stop taking them for granted. But first we need to know, why do we harm our own resources? Why can’t we use the resources that we have? Why waste our time pining for those we DON’T have?

Descending deeper through the subconscious we uncover the powerful, devastating wish is to be the exact opposite to what we actually are. Our fantasy is so powerful, we can picture this person – us, but thinner, more beautiful, intelligent, relaxed, powerful, magnetic. Mustering all our resources, we yearn to attract someone who is ALSO just like that. The cat-fishers know this and try to lure us into their web with borrowed pix, false profiles and Fear of Missing Out. Fantasy not only WON’T save us, it makes us hate ourselves! Now is the time to study our REAL resources – they are UNIQUE. Is it our wonderful family? Our determination? Fantastic teeth? Interesting job? Ability to laugh? Interest in others? Generosity? Friends? Faith? All these things? Think about your resume, which describes where you ACTUALLY WENT and what you ACTUALLY DID. Now try to write one about what you learned and who you became and where that stands on the path to who you want to be. Didn’t the mistakes lead to insight? Didn’t the suffering deepen your compassion? Are we stronger at the broken places? The further into this exercise you go the more likely you are to realize your soulmate will be lucky to have you!

PRACTICE CUTS

The dead gush so cruelly after dying.
High time to make some changes;
Get religion, have visions
See god, become a nun
A self worth knowing.
Time is gunning for me
Arthritic fingers
Scrabbling at my dreams
Playing old tunes
Scratchier, less sensitive.

I’m a body in search of a car wreck
That old deus ex machina
Disaster; blood is so good
At erasing uncertainty &
Bringing back a taste for life.
Reduce me, silence: fortify
Some other ego, mine’s too tired.
Ebb out along the tide,
Cauterize this woof-warp of a pattern
So plain even I can see it.

Reduce me to unbending bones of
My essential self: sweet sister; she;
The soul I was before I became me.