Following the Dream

Lately I've been noticing a lot of moving and restructuring in the lives of several of my friends and also in the lives of a lot of acquaintances.  I've been feeling a few rumblings in my life, too.  It seems that heavens and the Earth are demanding something from us.  I feel I, for one, am being asked to grow.  Become more of who I can be.  I have observed that those who are throwing caution to the winds and are embracing this urge for change are finding themselves in much better situations than the one they just left - albeit with their heads still spinning.  Following the dream has paid big dividends for at least one good friend. 

Some of those around me are resisting the urge to grow, me included in some ways, and they are struggling somewhat.  I've observed fortune is favouring the bold, so, to quote one of my bold friends, it's time to hang on to my tail cos I'm going for a ride!!

The Cleansing Storms

The dark ominous shadows of clouds over Deep Canyon.

Over the past few days my part of the world has been deluged with unexpectedly heavy rains along with crackling lightning and deep growling thunder.  The sun and the clouds have been in vigorous competition to control the skies, one minute dark and brooding, next golden light flooding down.  I've found it exhilarating!  In the calmer moments between the downpours I wander outside and enjoy the cool moist desert with it's most unique and unforgettable odour.

The vegetation, so used to surviving in the harshest of conditions, is absorbing this life giving elixir from the heavens as fast as those cells can handle it, for who knows when the next rain will come?  Within a couple of days new growth will be evident everywhere I look.  That is the nature of the desert.

The rich saturated colours of the rain soaked landscape.

                                                             
I can't help but make the connection between this desert storm and storms I've had in my life.  Whenever I've been coming down with some sort of sickness I've felt heavy and sluggish with trouble concentrating on anything.  As the condition moves through me I get to feeling worse until healing begins again.  It is the same when I'm struggling with an emotional issue.  Nothing is clear and I have no energy.  I'm stagnant. But then I come out the other side and I'm brimming with health and vitality again   My thoughts are clear, my heart is optimistic again and I have my mojo back. Stagnation gives way to new growth again.

In my world I've found every cloud does seem to have a silver lining.

A late rose blooming after the rains.

Cloudy Vision

It was late afternoon recently and I was inside finishing off few last minute chores before walking the dogs.  It got quite dark quite quickly and I, thinking it was later than it was, scrambled to get done and get out before night really set in.

On stepping outside with chaotic dogs ensnaring my legs I looked up to see it really wasn't that late at all.  The sun was being shut out by a very thick cloud almost directly above me.  What would have stopped me in my tracks, if the dogs hadn't already managed that, was these uncanny rays of light bouncing back up into the sky.  I was awestruck at the time and still am now when I see this picture I snapped with a simple little point and shoot camera.  I have not manipulated this image at all, this is as I saw it.

I got to thinking about the metaphor the World was presenting to me here through that simple little Lens.  I've often heard the saying of someone being 'under a cloud' and this is literally what I saw.  That life giving powerful sun was being deflected by one little cloud.  Light was all around, but not under, the cloud. 

I wonder how many times in my life I've been under a cloud and not realised I only had to take a few steps sideways to get back to the light?

Stalking Cacti

I've been closely watching a cactus in my neighbourhood these past few days.  Every year almost without warning it throws out a beautiful big fragrant white flower, then just as quickly it's gone again.  That seems to be the cacti way.  I've never managed to get a picture of it though I surely have tried.  This year was to be the exception.  I've been stalking that plant with my camera!

Well, the World had a message for me through the Lens as it usually seems to, but this one wasn't what I expected at all.  That potentially magnificent cactus bud simply did not open!  It went from a fat juicy bud almost bursting at the seams to a withered up dead appendage, in just two days.   I had even visited it after dark in case it was one of the night blooming Cereus, but no, not even at night was it about to open.  I was/am so disappointed.

I got to thinking what could the message be here for me.  What  point of view, or what metaphor, was the World offering me?  Then it hit me:  what if I died, bursting with unrealized potential?  It probably wouldn't concern me at the time, I'd be dead, right?  But what about the World around me?  We all came into this World with  unique gifts and talents which, if we don't discover and use them, could the Universe/God, family, friends, or even our community,  be just as disappointed as I was when the bud withheld it's gift from me?

Popular author and public speaker, Wayne Dyer, often reminds us 'not to die with our music still in us' and now, more than ever I can see his point.