Pruning + Thorns = Beauty

In my yard I have several bougainvillea plants, a couple are giants. I love the flaming beauty of the bougainvillea when its blooming. Our semi-tropical climate is perfect for them and they grow into monsters. I have one that I lashed to the house years ago to direct its growth upward instead of outward, which would obstruct a lovely little winding path down the side of my house.

During the last couple of weeks we have experienced quite heavy rains. Key word here "heavy" rains. These rains caused my above mentioned bougainvillea to hang away from the house with a predictable result - the nylon cord broke and the Sasquatch plant sprawled awkwardly across my once pretty winding path. I had no choice but to cut it back - to the nub. But don't feel bad for the demise of this beautiful specimen. A bougainvillea has more lives than a cat and it will return very soon, stronger and healthier than ever. Especially since it fed happily and deliciously on my blood as I laboriously cut it back, one 3 ft section at a time.

For those of you who have never wrestled with a giant bougainvillea, I'm here to tell you that no one escapes unscathed from the experience. The thorns on that sucker are ENORMOUS and seek soft flesh like a moth seeks light, "the better to taste your blood, my little pretty." But just like roses (which I also foolishly grow) without some pruning, the beauty of the plant is withheld.
And pruning requires an encounter with thorns.

Pruning is always painful, but without such, the much desired growth and the accompanying beauty cannot take place. Just like our lives.

With Beauty Before Me

There are two ways to live,

one is as though nothing

is a miracle. The other is

as if everything is.

Albert Einstein

My Clothesline Experience

When I decided I wanted to start a blog, one of the most challenging parts, believe it or not, was coming up with a name for it. I looked at many other blogs and reviewed the names for them. Most were very catchy and cool though usually not pertinent to the subject material of the blog itself. So I made a list of what I thought were also catchy and cool names and took votes from family and friends but nothing really resonated in my heart.

So, as one of my most recent blog entries explained, I put it out to my subconscious, my higher self. I had just dozed off when it came to me from the deep recesses of my beanie little brain: ‘CLOTHESLINE EXPERIENCE’. I wrote it down on my pad of paper and went back to sleep. When I awoke in the morning I was amazed at what was on the paper. I called my bestest friend in Tennessee and related what had happened. “Of course!” she said. Then she added, “I had forgotten all about that.” Me too, or so I thought. So here’s the story of my clothesline experience:

About 28 yrs ago I was married, had a 10 yr old son and a 4 yr old son and a newborn baby girl. I also had a 5 yr old 120 pound Great Dane named Crystal, whom I loved. I had taken the baby and gone to the movies with my friend. While I was gone all hell broke loose. Apparently, Crystal had gotten away from whoever was handling her and attacked a neighbor’s dog. My then-husband, for whatever reason, got his rifle and killed my dog. By the time I returned home he had already “bagged” her and disposed of her somewhere. I still don’t know why. In any event, I was beside myself with confusion and rage. I was a wreck.

A couple of days later I was hanging out diapers on the clothesline. I was in such a dark place, so desperate and confused. I remember crying, sobbing really, as I reached down into the clothes basket, grabbed a sweet smelling clean diaper, shook it out and clipped it to the clothesline. I called out to God through my weeping to please! please! please! help me. I remember saying “I can’t fix this one, I’m so very lost and confused, please help me.” I let go of everything, acknowledging my helplessness.

And then it happened, right there at the clothesline. I was engulfed in love, in grace. As I walked back to the house, I physically felt an arm around my shoulders. My inner being and my outer environment were filled with love. There is no other word for it than love, light, grace.

God met me at the clothesline.

Love After Love

I love this poem so much...just wanted to share...

Love After Love


The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own front door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.


-Derek Walcott

Without Warning

I see it in the distance
A grey curtain
Nearer, nearer
Till suddenly and almost,
But not quite, without
Warning I am covered,
Surrounded,
Drowning
In the shocking wetness
Of it.
Like a shower on a
Summer day
It arises from nowhere, from everywhere
Sucking the air from
My lungs
Stopping my heart from
beating.
Altogether cold.


Linda L Logan

With All Your Heart

With all your heart

Say out loud...

I want to live a happy life.

Listen to what you just said...

Take notice of things.

Surround yourself with people

you love.

Listen to the wind.

Imagine.

Let everything change all the

time.

Let go of the why.

Welcome miracles.

Thank God constantly

Breathe.

Tell the truth about how you feel.

Make choices.

Want what you want.

by Rev Lisa S

Acres of Diamonds

Sometimes when I get in a stuck place i.e. I don't know what to do about a particular situation or I don't know which path I should take. Whatever the unknown may be, I ask my higher self at night before I go to sleep for direction, for an answer, for the next step. I've learned to keep a pad of paper and a pen nearby because sometime between falling asleep and awakening the next morning an answer to my dilemma may come forth and if I don't write it down it will vanish like a mist and be gone forever. Sometimes whole poems will emerge that are scribbled over pages and pages that have to be decoded and transcribed into something readable in the morning. In any event, I think it is very cool and always welcome this somewhat bizarre but effective process.

A few weeks ago I was feeling like, "OK, what's next, where do I go from here?" So I put my question out before I went to bed but I forgot to equip myself with a pad of paper and pen. The Universe being generous, friendly and understanding chose another method to get the message across to me. So I'm sleeping happily snuggled under he covers when suddenly I'm awaken by a very loud voice, saying, very loudly, "Acres of Diamonds!!!". It was said just once but with enough force to make me jump out of bed as if a stick of dynamite and just exploded...you know where!

I ran to the computer and looked up "Acres of Diamonds." I knew it was a talk/sermon that had been given thousands of times by Russell Cromwell back in the late 1920's and I knew the gist of the talk but I wanted to read the entire text to see how it applied to me.

You can find it, should you be interested, the same way I did but here's the cliff note version:

A farmer wants to get rich by going out into the world to search for diamonds so he might become wealthy beyond imagination. He sells his farm, all his belongings, etc etc and leaves his home in search of diamonds. The fellow that buys his farm one day goes to a brook and finds a stone which he later discovers is a gigantic diamond that has been there all along.

Obvious moral: No need to take off in search of __(fill in the blank)______, because everything you need you are sitting on right now. Just gotta dig it up. Basically another take on "the grass always looks greener on the other side".

A friend of mine is a world traveler, she's got a knack for traipsing off across the globe to look for herself or for love or to escape a relationship or to find a new experience. I always admired her ability to cut loose and take off. But one day, during a particularly close and intimate sharing conversation she told me that no matter where she ran off to...she (and all her issues) went right along with her. She couldn't escape herself no matter how she tried.

Dissatisfaction can live anywhere.

What diamond mine are each and every one of us sitting on of which we are not even aware? What riches did we come into the world already equipped to share? What are our talents? What prevents us from accessing the wealth, happiness, joy, peace and love for which we all long?

I don't know the answers for you...I'm just learning some of these answers for me.

I think the answer lies right under my nose.