Northwest Ohio has had beautiful, dry sunny weather these past two weeks. My gardens and flowers have loved it, but only with a daily water source from the old-fashion sprinklers I played in as a child. The forecast for today through the next several days is heavy rainfall, dreary and overcast. It’s an ebb in the flow of lovely weather. And, just as nature would have it, we might parallel the pulse of society: the communities and cities within the United States and the world, and perhaps even within your home, health, workplace or relationships. The ground has cracks and wide fissures like angry, abandoned, destructed buildings whose owners are left empty and hopeless. As I write this, the pouring rain is striking the pavement both horizontally and vertically, creating a zigzag of dizziness and shock like when one falls to his knees receiving devastating news. The rivers are to reach their peak crest with flash flood warnings, like a friendship or romantic relationship reaching the breaking point of hurt or betrayal or miscommunication. Oh, this weather…this ebb and flow of our life stories.
Lovely, lovely rain…nourishing the earth…giving her gulps of energy, and substance and life. Keep flowing from your life source of the sea, so we may cheer for the green-bursting blades of grass, and bow in solitude for the echoing dry, brittle ground from which you have endured…just like us when our treacherous days of pain kiss the wholeness of joy.
Do you see the birds nestling and snuggling, protecting their babies in their nests? Listen as they call out in chirps, singing praises and inspirations to their feathered friends from all walks of life. I sit and smile.
And the trees…the green crowns of glory standing rooted as the storms shake them to their core…just like the turbulent days of agony that shaped and molded us into who we are today, and yet who we are becoming. Thank you oaks and maples, redwoods and willows; palms, fruit-bearing and cypress - stretching all around the world like our broken and mended hearts; chanting prayers and mantras for hope and healing for our world, our communities, our families…ourselves.
Do you see the sun nodding to the moon? It makes my heart skip like a little girl jumping in the puddles with no restriction; so pure. The sun knows he can rely on the moon every night, so the moon smiles back in all of her fullness, shining and lighting the way for sojourners growing and changing, taking flight in new ideas, new endeavors, new awarenesses.
Then, as the rain turns to a drizzle, the flowers stretch, the dirt settles, the wilderness awakes. Slowly and steadily life unfolds and nature releases a deep sigh. The sky serenades the sea, and the sea reveals her deep mystic vastness, both inviting humankind to share love and peace and vulnerability. I bow to the storm in wisdom and curtsy in playfulness, for she is a teacher, forging and sculpting the very expansion of who we are.
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
—Albert Einstein