Lesson from The Turtle

turtle Photo by Kuhn

Storms of spring threaten -
Turtle pulls back into shell -
Into reflection.

⭐️ ⛈ 💚 ⛈

Perseverance is a good trait. To have what it takes to go the needed distance in the manner needed to create success.
However, in western society we often do not honor the legitimate need to enter seclusion. We praise those who doggedly go forward to meet external goals. We certainly do not recognize that this time spent on inner work can also be a moving forward.
Ruminating. Considering. Percolating. To take the time needed to reflect can also be a form of perseverance. Honor the need to introspect. Certainly we have commitments to keep to family, to work and commitments in other arenas of our busy lives. Find the place of balance. Our souls call us to The Great Work.

⭐️ ⛈ 💚 ⛈

⭐️

this lovely image found at:    https://citydesert.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/hermits-and-the-roman-catholic-church/

⭐️ ⛈ 💚 ⛈

3 4 2018 The Bridge Across

Straightforward simple.
Honest and unassuming.
Uncomplicated.
*-*-*-*-*-*

Bhagavad Gita
26 soul qualities
#9 Straightforwardness

*-*-*-*-*-*
i do not know the source of this photo / found on internet

BE LOVE

Bathed in the love
Not just forgetting past hurts
-having no import.

Gifted to be in a space where all is LOVE.
At any moment you can choose to turn to this love. Those you think have wronged you – at any moment you can choose to turn to wholeness – to holiness. Another name for this turning is: forgiveness. The surprise is we are not just setting ‘the other’ free – we are setting ourselves free also.
There is a love that transends our limited human experience.
We have chosen those we walk with here - just so we can create the opportunities where WE can melt into This Love. This ‘burning off of karma’ concept brings with it the idea that suffering is a necessary component for our unfolding into beauty and balance. This is not quite accurate. At any time we can choose the easy way. We just uncross our arms – which have been covering our hearts – allow the heart full sway.
Do not wait for the other to take the first step. You are stronger than you think. With fortitude of good heart, accept and be love. 

Painting of Two Hearts by Jim Dine

<3

Quercus Agrifolia, The California Live Oak

🌳🍃🌳🍃🌳🍃

Today I nurture
Saplings, that will grow quite tall.
Shading grandchildren.

🌳🍃🌳🍃🌳🍃

My property only had two oak trees. They were at the back of my property where it drops off into the canyon. At the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden I purchased 4 oak saplings which I have planted bringing the total oaks in soil on my land up to 6. Then my son in law, kumar, hearing of my wish for more oaks gave me some in gallon pots. Then a friend from my pottery class gave me more in small quart pots. The oaks in quart pots, I will be putting into gallon pots before late spring. Now I have a plethora of beloved oaks that will be ready to move from pot to land in about a year. 

🦌🐝🐞🐿🦊

I carry the long vision for this land. 

Oaks will hold the land. Oaks will protect. 

They will be a place for great grandchildren to climb high. Perhaps the great grand will take a book along – find a strong sturdy bough – lean back into the trunk and read. Or perhaps my great grand will sit quiet on a bough feeling oak’s life coursing up the trunk. My great grands will look out with far vision to the Santa Cruz Island, breathing in the peace that permeates the land. Fox, coyote and deer will pass below and perhaps pause for shelter now and again. So, I smile, feeling this is legacy enough – taking care of future generations in some small way. 

🦌🐝🐞🐿🦊

Quercus agrifolia, the California live oak or coast live oak, is an often shrubby evergreen oak tree, a type of live oak, native to the California. It grows west of the Sierra Nevada mountain range from Mendocino County, California, south to northern Baja California in Mexico.
Coast live oak typically has a much-branched trunk and reaches a mature height of 33–82 ft. Some specimens may attain an age exceeding 250 years, with trunk diameters up 10 or 13 ft. The trunk, particularly for older individuals, may be highly contorted, massive and gnarled. The crown is broadly rounded and dense, especially when aged 20 to 70 years; in later life the trunk and branches are more well defined and the leaf density lower.

🌸🌼

I took the photo posted here of grandmother oak

it grows in my daughter Crystal and son in law Kumar’s yard. 

Some of the saplings I grow come from this family.

🌸🌼

🌺

...with one of my grands ... Kai .... the trees are for Kai and all the grands .. all the generations 

Our Thoughts / Our Words

🌿🌸🍃

Be truthful, no guile.

No time wasted arguing.
Without deception.

🌿🌸🍃