Beauty and The Beasts

Mother Mary Statue - Mother Mary’s Garden, San Luis, Colorado

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Rumi

I felt drawn to Rumi this morning and as I searched for his volume on the shelf another book caught my attention. Muse seemed less surprised than I when I opened Carolyn Baker’s Sacred Demise: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse to a chapter that began with the above quote. Ahh, the magic of life.

The surprise continued as I read the first paragraph where Baker cites the John O’Donohue book I turn to often, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, quoting a line that I used here just a few weeks back:

When we walk the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us.

My smile meets Muse’s knowing twinkle. THIS is the magic of how life flows. THIS is life that dances and wants to rise. THIS is who we are.

I felt as if I’d come home to discover surprise guests, gifts both comforting and unsettling. I felt comfort in the wise words, of being reminded of the power of beauty, and of beauty’s existence in so many forms. When we look for beauty, it is either present to be discovered or we encounter a space, a longing where beauty beckons us to create its essence. As O’Donohue suggests, beauty comes to trust us when we hold reverence for her and for all life.

At the same time, I was present to the unsettled nature of this time and to inhabiting my own unsettledness. It feels to me as if the cacophonies of chaos are raising their voices in every domain of life. The pace toward and of the collapse of the world we have known seems to have quickened. We are gifted with the challenge of navigating life in uncharted waters. Beauty offers to light the path.

Navigation is both a solo journey and one of community. We each have our own path of inner work to engage as well as engaging in maintaining our daily life on the physical plane in outmoded, crumbling systems. This is no different for communities large and small. Each must reckon with the past, create its identity in the present, and maintain life as it looks ahead to new futures rising.

It is a time of beasts, but it need not be a time deficient of beauty. At the heart of the collapse of systems built on the lie of separation are the emergence of systems and structures built on the truth of unity, our interconnectedness with one another and with ALL of life. Our dance encompasses both – the dying along with all that is gestating and being born.

While we hospice the disintegration of that which we once knew, let us midwife the birth of that which wants to rise not from the greed of separation but from the true nature of our loving hearts.

Sunset Moon Over the San Luis Valley

From Conflict Arises Beauty: Everything is Music

Sunflowers, Sun, Trees, Sky - Beauty Abounds in the Woods Out Back

The mystery of music is its uncanny ability to coax harmony out of contradiction and chaos. Often the beauty of great music is a beauty born from the rasp of chaos. The confidence of creativity knows that deep conflict often yields the most interesting harmony and order. John O’Donohue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)

We have fallen into the place where everything is music. Rumi

As I read O’Donohue’s essay on music one recent morning I felt a gentle nudge, a Muse reminder of the beauty in life that can arise from conflict. O’Donohue’s words typically carry me and open possibilities far beyond his topic. No exception to that found in these words.

I thought of conflicts past when I was less conscious than (hopefully) I am today and felt gratitude for the beauty in my life that has risen like a phoenix from ashes of the past or any other such mythical tale. I see threads of beauty throughout the journey in the choices, effort, angst, allowing, letting go, holding on. You know, life.

I reflect that although I didn’t consciously set out to create this sacred sanctuary in the woods of the Rocky Mountains, step by step the Dragonfly House emerged from a conflict that has roots in the events of September 11, 2001. Five years passed before I moved to Colorado and another seven before I landed in this spot. Twenty plus years (perhaps I’m more patient than I thought) and still evolving at its pace through ‘chaos and contradiction’, confusion, uncertainty, even fear. Fueled along the way by Nature, beauty, care, love, joy, friends, beloved canines, to name a few.

This perspective offers me context for a current conflict that has me engaged and curious (after going through a brief stage of rage and furious). Navigating what has become a challenging working relationship, I’m in the question of how to participate in a way that creates beauty. Beauty in the collaborative relationship as well as in the fruits of that labor. What music wants to rise from what is currently ‘raspy chaos’? How do I conduct myself to bring beauty into both?

Beyond the human defined bounds of the dot on the planet that I’m blessed to occupy, what beauty wants to rise in humanity? In Nature? What if we would hold greater intention to create music and beauty in all of life? What pivots and new scaffolding would call such beautiful music forward in us, for us and for Mother Earth?

Muse smiles at my leap from me to we, acknowledging my care for our world while gently guiding me back to the choices before me to make and the actions I need to take right here in this micro-climate that is home. In them is my power to create beauty here that extends to the world beyond. Music indeed.

Writing complete as day began to dawn, I closed my journal and looked out into the woods, discovering a large black bear ambling through the landscape 50 feet or so from the house. When it ambled out of sight, curiosity led me to read up on the spiritual meaning of bear: Awakening the Power of the Unconscious. Feel free to amble through any time Bear …  Did someone say ‘music’?

Bear in the Woods

Calling Forth the Beauty in All of Life

Rainbow Over the Stupa

Only if there is beauty in us can we recognize beauty elsewhere: beauty knows beauty. In this way beauty can be a mirror that manifests our own beauty. … To achieve a glimpse of inner beauty strengthens our sense of dignity and grace. John O’Donohue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)

On our walk yesterday afternoon, shortly after stopping briefly to help a neighbor, something caught my eye as I looked at these amazing mountains: a faint band of red, a rainbow beginning to form.

I watched as the other bands of color slowly became visible – yellow, green, blue, purple. Beauty unfolding on the stage before me, the sacred Sangre de Cristo Mountains a splendid backdrop. Continuing to watch, colors brightened, faded, brightened again through several cycles as rain moved south. Zadie Byrd patiently sniffed the territory in no rush to move on from the beauty her olfactory system was discovering.

As the rainbow faded, we walked on. With the mountains behind us the vast San Luis Valley now offered its own visual feast. When we rounded the corner toward home, the mountains were once more ahead. Taking in the sacred landscape, I discovered that the rainbow had brightened once again and, from our vantage point, was hanging over the largest of several local Buddhist stupas. Another dose of stunning beauty.

Now, as I write before dawn, the tingle of rainbow’s beauty returns. Or, perhaps, it lingers. I’m reminded of this O’Donohue wisdom which seems to mirror my experience:

The experience of beauty has for the most part a particular force. It envelopes and overcomes us. Yet there are times when beauty reveals itself slowly. There are times when beauty is shy and hesitates until it can trust the worthiness of the beholder.

The visual beauty of the rainbow eventually faded but the imprint of its beauty on this heart lives on, a gentle reminder that beauty is first and always an inside job. Beauty is always present to the heart that beholds her.

I gently close my journal feeling that Muse and I are complete. I notice that beauty has been our focus of late and am curious about Muse guiding me here. No,’ nudges Muse, ‘we aren’t quite done yet.’

Questions emerge: How might we call forth the shy beauty hidden in the so-called problems of our world? Of the bumps and bruises in our individual roads of life? How might we demonstrate our worthiness so that beauty will be revealed? How might I behold that beauty?

My questions hang like the crescent moon over these mountains as dawn breaks.

I think of how slowly and deliberately Nature revealed hidden aspects of her beauty during the Covid pause two years ago. Wildlife returning. Skies clearing. Clean waters flowing. What was our worthiness to witness that? How could we allow it slip away in our quest to return to ‘normal’?

My attention turns to a contentious issue here in my community. How can I call forth the beauty that is surely hidden in the divisiveness? How can I demonstrate my worthiness so that any shy beauty can be revealed?

With a gentle nod, Muse seems to say, ‘Simply stop, look, listen, and love. Know that beauty IS there in each and every player.’

Indeed, beauty IS there. And so it is with all the world’s seeming darkness as well as the dim patches in our own lives. Gentle rays of light penetrate deep to point the way when we stop, look, love, and listen for beauty and light of wisdom within.

Now, about that mouse that visited the kitchen overnight … surely there is beauty waiting to be revealed.

Morning Moon Over the Sangres

Reminiscing As Year 10 Begins

Morning Clouds Bring Beauty & the Possibility of Blessed Rain

Speak what you think today in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

So began The Success Zone 15 August 2013. I described my intention for weekly posts as “an eclectic place for your personal success!”. I don’t recall precisely what prompted me to use these particular words from Emerson, but I do know that they hold true for me today: what I think (feel, sense, know, etc.) and say today may not be what I think (feel, sense, know, etc.) and say tomorrow.

For indeed we change as does the world we navigate, those humans with whom we share our planet home, Gaia herself, and the cosmos in its entirety. Moment to moment. Day to day. Year to year. Lifetime to lifetime.

When I started the weekly blog, I was steeped in the growing profession of coaching, (re)building a coaching business and finding/creating my place, my purpose, my role(s) in life. Today, no longer in the business of coaching, I aim to bring the best of my coaching presence and skills into life and (with support from Muse) to these weekly musings. Today I recognize and accept more deeply that finding/creating place, purpose, role(s) in life is a journey, not a goal or a destination and that success is a matter of satisfaction, contribution, and fulfillment more than of money or acquiring more ‘stuff’.

Place, purpose, role(s) pivot with new circumstances, new knowledge, and insights. Awareness, agility, and adaptability are skills to strengthen. New thinking that leads us to personal and collective pivots is the order of the day (and, likely, for many tomorrows).

Who among has not made significant pivots in the last nine years? Who among us has not rethought and pivoted again as life conditions change and as heart and soul tap our being and point us to new possibilities or a new way? Who among us is the same today as we were then (or, heck, even yesterday)?

Certainly not moi. In the early days of the pandemic, The Zone pivoted to become The Pivot (120 weeks ago – if you be counting). A change in name and focus had been bubbling in me for some time. Clarity came as I saw the need to make changes in my own thinking, my beliefs, my habits and as I witnessed the Earth’s responses to our collective global pause. For me it was the beginning of reexamining EVERYthing, of exploring wider avenues of thought and possibility, and of seeking out those people, places, and pockets that are building the new, a process that’s likely to happily engage me for the duration of this lifetime.

In sharing my engagement, discoveries, and curiosities I aim to offer introspection, inspiration, insights, intelligence, and information for your journey of discovering and navigating your own pivot points. As Muse reminds, surely much change is afoot. Perhaps some wisdom will emerge along the way.

As it was in the beginning, The Pivot will continue to be eclectic. My curiosity runs both wide and deep. And one belief that isn’t likely to shift is that ‘one size does NOT fit all’. Likewise, The Pivot continues to support individually and collectively reclaiming personal power as a right and a responsibility and seeks to challenge your thinking and mine.

As it always has been, there is rarely an ‘editorial plan or calendar’ for what will come. The Pivot emerges weekly in response to the promptings – internal and external – of life and to (mostly) gentle nudging from Muse.

I (WE! – suggests Muse) aim to bring more beauty to light and life. Beauty not just of the visual sort, although certainly I’m steeped in the natural beauty of place (and not likely to pivot away from sharing that), but beauty of the heart, the soul, the spirt of life. Beauty that is of sight, sound, and all our senses. Perhaps beauty that is beyond our senses, yet ever present when we are open to receive.

A deep bow of gratitude to you for being with us on the journey and some beautiful words to remember as we engage in the days ahead.

Being here is so much. Rainer Maria Rilke

The human mind is in itself a world with huge mountains, deep valleys, and forests of the unknown. John O’Donohue

Morning Moonset over the San Luis Valley

To Witness the Beauty of Earth

Beautiful Morning On the Trail

The beauty of the earth is the first beauty. Millions of years before us the earth lived in wild elegance. Landscape is the first-born of creation. Sculpted with huge patience over millennia, landscape has enormous diversity of shape, presence and memory. There is poignancy in beholding the beauty of landscape: often it feels as though it has been waiting for centuries for the recognition and witness of the human eye. John O’Donohue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)

 I’ve been on a bit of a retreat for much of the last week. New awareness rising. Love of the land I occupy deepening. Something (perhaps, some ‘things’) stirring, bubbling, shifting. Not good or bad; simply a sense that change is afoot.

 Change in me amidst. Change in our structured world. Change on (and in) Mother Earth. And beyond.

In this emerging awareness few words rise to be shared. Reading ( O’Donohue’s essay (The Affection of the Earth for Us) and reading again feeds the stirring, tapping my shoulder with a call to see beauty, acknowledge beauty EVERYwhere. Especially in the beauty of my place on the planet.

With Muse concurrence I simply leave you with O’Donohue’s closing words, along with the beauty of this sacred place I’m blessed to call home, and with an invitation to open to and embrace the beauty of your place on our marvelous blue marble.

We were once enwombed in the earth and the silence of the body remembers that dark, inner longing. Fashioned from clay, we carry the memory of the earth. Ancient, forgotten things stir within our hearts, memories from the time before the mind was born. Within us are depths that keep watch. These are the depths that no words can trawl or light unriddle. Our neon times have neglected and evaded the depth-kingdoms of interiority in favour of the ghost realms of cyberspace. Our world becomes reduced to intense but transient foreground. We have unlearned the patience and attention of lingering at the thresholds where the unknown awaits us. We have become haunted pilgrims addicted to distraction and driven by the speed and colour of images.

Sacred Mountains, Sacred Place

Beauty Abounds

Monsoon Season in the Mountains

Beauty abounds

Beauty surrounds

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 Since last week’s post I’ve been keenly aware of the abundant beauty in my life in oh so many forms. Shortly after posting I opened mail picked up late the day before to find a gift: John O’Donohue’s Beauty: The Invisible Embrace. The gift alone was beautiful but coming on the heels of posting that investing in beauty is an investment in my soul I knew I’d received an immediate return on my investment in the post. Since then I’ve been present to simply noticing the word ‘beauty’ in various media on a wide range of topics.

For me this time of year is tender with beautiful memories: summer fun at the lake; beloveds who left their bodies in summertime – my mom, my dad, my cousin, and Cool Hand Luke; personal growth that I’ve experienced in summers past. Beauty.

There’s profound beauty in the changes I witness in Zadie Byrd over the past year. Unlike last season’s monsoon thunderstorms when she panted, trembled, paced, and sought shelter in the bathtub, she now takes them in stride – a bit pensive, but easily calmed by a flower remedy or a few drops of CBD. This season I enjoy the sound of rain on the roof, watching rain fall on the earth, and being alert to the possibility of a rainbow. Beauty.

An afternoon thunderstorm followed by showers late into the night adds moisture to these thirsty woods and mountains.

Rain falls

Sun shines

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

Rocks glisten

Ground softens

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 Muse calls attention to my wandering mind as it wonders ‘is this rain enough to ease the extreme drought?’ or at least move the needle from extreme to severe or even simply ‘drought’? Man measures. Nature simply IS.

Birds sing

Hummers flit and feed

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 Muse nudges again as mind wanders again to multiple projects that I want to move forward – continuing the landscaping; organizing and releasing books, papers, and other ‘stuff’ that once upon a time I couldn’t live without; completing my will and other legal directives …

Creek roars

Sun rises

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 It is challenging to see beauty in the ravages of war, during personal hardship, in political upheaval and rights being taken away, in half-truths and outright lies, in hate speech – overt and covert. Yet, while they may be dormant and need tending, I know the seeds of beauty are in the midst of all. How might we tend, nurture these seeds? How might I?

Beauty abounds

Beauty surrounds

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 I was heartened yesterday to discover that the theme this year’s local July 4th celebration is ‘interdependence’ and features a local food hero who is one of the driving forces in organizing a regional food hub that provides access to locally grown foods around Colorado. The season’s first CSA (community supported agriculture) box arrived last week, chock full of fresh, Colorado grown and produced, food – beets, cherries, salad greens, quinoa, eggs and more. Nutritious, delicious, bountiful beauty.

Perhaps it is time to change the moniker of July 4th from ‘Independence Day’ to ‘Interdependence Day’ for as surely as each cell in the body does not operate with total independence of the others, we do not operate, survive, and thrive without one another in the various communities of which we are a part. Perhaps such reimagining is an evolutionary step forward in caring for Mother Earth, Nature, and one another. How beautiful could that be?

Yesterday’s Rainbows

Flowing with Nature in the Season’s Glow

Solstice Hike to the Ziggurat on a Colorado Blue Sky Day

The beauty of Winter Solstice is courage in itself. It is the courage to know that to be new is not necessarily going to be accepted by those expecting the commonplace. … You accept rejection from humankind. You accept rejection from your family and those around you. You move yourself to where there is no rejection: which is the reality of nature all around you. Gregge Tiffen – Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story

So it was with Mary and Joseph. Rejected by the mundane world of the inn, they were offered Nature … Rejoice! In rejection is a gift of direction, of invitation.

This blog day after the Winter Solstice finds me immersed in Solstice newness. Fully present in this moment, I’m tingling to discover what ‘Santa’ will bring forth as opportunity emergent from the chaos of our crumbling mundane world in this new cycle. I’m grateful for the Solstice reminder of courage.

Living life not as a series of goals to be achieved and tasks to be checked off a list, but as the flow of energy, clear with intention and presence in each moment NOW.

The Muse, silent, smiles. ‘Savor this’. The Muse’ silence speaks loudly. It needs no words or deeds in this moment. Savor the quiet. Be still. Turn away from the world and dwell in ‘your’ world. Sing. Dance. Play. With Creation. Embrace open-hearted fullness and satisfaction. Satisfied not that all is how I would have it be, but that I am.

Love.                  

The Great Sand Dunes, Blanca Peak, and the vast Wildlife Refuge — Nature’s Beauty Glows from the Ziggurat

Being The 'Listening Heaven' on Earth

Sun and Shadow. Rain and Rainbow.

Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. Rabindranath Tagore

Last week I shared the question that my heart heard as I was walking in the woods out back (click here): What would I do if I loved the earth unconditionally?

I’d love to say that I’ve reflected on the question each day and made many adjustments in daily life to live more fully aligned with Gaia. Reflected? Yes. Daily? Not quite. Adjustments? Few.

And yet, I feel an expansion, a deepening in my capacity to listen and to hear the voice of our home. Listening and hearing are the pivot points for change whether heard through the ears as sound or the heart as a felt sense of truth.

With so much dark and heavy noise in the world, I’m tuning my inner radio to the sounds of the earth, listening to ‘stations’ where the voices share information not just of the head, but also of the heart.

No surprise that much of my ‘listening’ to Mother Earth is visual. These sacred mountains and the woods out back whisper, “beauty, consistency, harmony, change and adaptation, peaceful presence.” Yesterday afternoon as I headed out the door, I discovered that along with the bright sunshine, it was raining lightly. I raced out to an opening where I could see the rainbow that I knew for sure would there. This morning the Muse and I walked the labyrinth, curious about how today’s message would unfold. Greeted by the sun’s first rays on the pines, I was reminded that light always follows the darkness.

Beyond these woods and the peaks above, I’m tuned in to Listening to the Earth’s daily ‘moments of mindful connection’ (find them here) offered by representatives of Indigenous peoples and cultures around our beautiful globe in support of bringing heart and soul to the science and politics of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26). I wonder what’s possible as more and more leaders and negotiators listen with heart as well as head (and the latest poll numbers)? How might the stresses on our planet and ourselves (our cells!) be eased as we listen to the trees seeking to listen as deeply as heaven surely does?

Inspired by the wisdom in this morning’s ‘moment’, I felt my heart open and connect with the heart of the earth. The felt sense of oneness with Mother Earth was palpable. I ‘knew’ that there was no separation between my body and Gaia, a knowing of the heart not just of my slippery mind. And I knew that this is true for each and every one of us – those with whom I’m in solidarity on many issues of the day and those whose views and actions are not aligned with mine. There is no separation.

The Muse reminds me of a question posed by Gregg Braden in a recent interview: Do you love yourself enough to listen and give your body what it needs? (The Muse also says to let you know you’ll be hearing more about what that interview stirred.). Since I and the Earth are ONE, do I love myself and the Earth, to live more fully in alignment with her/with me? What would I do if I loved myself unconditionally? What choices would I shift? Where would my free will carry me? Do I have the courage to find out?

Curious about COP26 beyond what you hear in the media? Here are a few places to explore: https://nature4climate.org/nature-positive/

https://unfccc.int/conference/glasgow-climate-change-conference-october-november-2021

The earth has music for those who listen. George Santayana

First Rays on the Labyrinth

Tapping Into Essence

Morning Trail - Heading for Home

Within any amount of knowledge is essence. It is the essence that produces wisdom, and it is wisdom that registers in consciousness. You are worth more than you or I can ever describe in human terms. You are irrepressible and invincible. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: The Nature of Feminine Truth – March, 2011)

Gregge’s quote has been with me since yesterday morning when its wisdom leapt off the page and pulled me into the muse. (Yikes! “It’s only Wednesday”, I thought.)

On each walk with Zadie Byrd (yes, ‘Sadie’ has a new name that seems to perfectly fit her essence!) I looked deeply into the mountains, the trees, the rocks, and the vast valley recognizing the beauty that is nature’s essence. A neighbor called with produce to share, the essence of love.

Later ‘essence’ popped into a conversation with a colleague and friend as she updated me on her book, sharing that she is aiming to share the ‘essence’ of the women she’s profiling in the project, not long details of their stories.

Except perhaps when I was focused on organizing info for my tax return, the ‘essence muse’ was with me throughout the day. Perhaps on some unconscious level it was there as well.

In the evening, as I read several chapters of Rivera Sun’s prescient 2013 novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, with its underlying theme of love and the movement’s motto, “Be kind. Be connected. Be Unafraid.”, I saw more clearly than ever that love is the essence that weaves us together as humans on this planet. Indeed, love weaves the fabric of the Universe.

I surrendered to slumber knowing that ‘love is our essence’.  I woke this morning with a deep sense that love is our core. Not just mine, yours, our friends, family and those who share our views, EVERYone’s.

This isn’t a new idea of course, but the muse invited me to feel it more deeply, to embrace love as the essence that breathes worth and value into each of our lives, to more fully BE the love that makes us irrepressible and invincible. The muse reminded me that love is the essence of the Universe of which we are each part and parcel. What is true of the whole is true for its parts. That’s you, me, everything, and EVERYone.

I began to see love even at the core of fear and of hate, but that’s a musing for another day.

For now, look deeply into what you know. Look until you see the love embedded there. Use what you know with the love at its core, the same love that is your core as well. Love is my experiment for the week. Join me?

Zadie Byrd Marching Home with her Antler Find

Elk, Meadowlark and the Setting Moon

Almost Full Moon Setting on Spring

Springtime.  It is the season to shake out the metaphysical carpet and throw off the heavy, winter blankets that may still seem so cozy even as the fresh breeze calls us outside. It is time to let our mind and spirit, still groggy with winter stories and pictures, move out to embrace the fun of spiritual adventure and inner blossoming. Gregge Tiffen (It’s Springtime: Flow with the Power of Nature – March, 2007)

Happy spring! Although snow is in our forecast overnight, today is the first full day of spring for those of us in the northern hemisphere. I may throw off the heavy winter blankets, but it will be a while before I pack them away. And, yet spring is in the air: warmer, longer days and the first hints of green grasses and wildflowers breaking through the ground into the light of day. The hard, frozen ground is giving way to the softness of sand and soil.

I too am opening to spring’s softness, breaking through my own cozy wrap of winter and beginning to envision how I’d like to see the next few months unfold.  As I do so, several tweaks to my home as well as business ideas have my attention – all in the planning stages now, but activity will soon ramp up.

And what, you might be wondering, does that have to do with elk, meadowlark and the setting moon?

Yesterday an early morning drive to take a friend to catch the daily bus to Denver gave Luke and me the opportunity to hike a trail that we love, but only do so occasionally.  Although the morning was cold (a chilly 13 degrees Fahrenheit) and the sun had yet to crest the 14,000 foot peaks, I was happy to have a special walk on this day of spring’s arrival.  I was curious to discover what would get the attention of my senses so that I might later reflect on any meaning and messages to consider.

On our trip to the bus stop we were heading west, observing the almost full moon as it gently moved toward the horizon. By the time Luke and I reached the trail, it was hazy and just beginning to meet the treetops. I sensed that this beautiful, almost full moon was setting on winter and calling forth spring.

Strength, Power and Nobility Embodied

As Luke and I set out on our walk, our first encounter was a large elk herd 200 yards or so from the trail. I stopped, watched and listened as they became aware of our presence and began to chatter. Their high pitched voice belies the strength and power of these amazing creatures. We watched them as they watched us. Those closest moved away, closer to the rest of the herd.  Luke sat patiently as ‘mom’ snapped pictures.  The herd settled, seemingly judging that we were not a threat, and I assessed that it was safe for us to continue.

A bit further along the trail I heard the unmistakable cheerful song of meadowlark.  Again, I stopped, listened and looked, but never spotted this cheerful character whose voice never fails to give me a smile. As the loop trail turned and we were headed back toward the car, a ray of sunlight hit the snow on one of the peaks. Such beauty!  I suddenly realized how cold I felt in the early morning shadow of the mountains. I picked up my pace and Luke happily followed suit as we trotted toward the car and its promise of warmth (and, for Luke, a treat!).

I felt deeply blessed by the presence and gifts of the moon, the elk and the meadowlark song, knowing that as I reflect more deeply over the coming days, the spiritual part of the journey will continue as the gifts of inner blossoming will show themselves ever more clearly. For now, I’m content with my curiosity – wondering how this experience will inform me as I spring into the projects ahead. Happy spring!

First Rays Hit the Peaks