PERSPECTIVE

Adytum continues her lessons. Why did I think we were shaping this land when day by day she shapes us, our own fragment of Mother Earth? Winston Churchill even noticed a similar experience house building saying “First we shape our houses, then they shape us…”

It is evident when I kneel to place a foot long Grand Fir in the hole Donn has just finished digging. “How”, I think glancing at the thick stemmed Himalayan Blackberries around the base of the hole , “can this possibly survive when there are such antagonistic partners living by its side?” The young fir is surrounded with a neighbor that will run right over it crushing its growth with massive weight; stealing light and nutrients it needs for its survival.

The answer is simple to my query on survival. For each good thing we plant, something is usually uprooted. It’s not that berry vines are bad, but these are rampant, weed like in their growth and completely unproductive. On the other hand, we have the potential of a towering Grand Fir, reaching to heaven, that will house multitudes of birds bringing song and life to the terrain not to mention beauty and grandeur. A sense of control is required on this land. Not any old thing that plants itself here should grow.

Adytum bursts into my thoughts while placing the Grand Fir and observing its dilemma. She reminds me that my thoughts are pretty much the same at times, and wonders why I allow it? In the Voice of Wisdom that is ancient and indescribable, she politely inquires without judgment or condemnation. But I have to agree. It is clear. There are noble thoughts and ones that just run amok creating havoc and stealing joy as they course along. They produce nothing of note. Certainly nothing that could reap grandeur from meditating on them…. They need to be uprooted just like the blackberry vines. Room needs to be created to more beauty in my mind.

I plant close to a dozen more trees, blessing each as it enters the ground. It doesn’t escape notice that most will have to be returned to so that the competing brush and berries can be removed. Each potential Beauty is marked with a strip of orange tape so that it can be found again heightening its value amongst the brambles on our hill preserving the intention we have for it – to grow up strong and true.

Just one lesson today from Adytum. What a gentle, patient teacher. Doctor means teacher….she is the Physician of my Soul today as I work in one of the first warm days of late winter.

Suddenly I see a great Bald Eagle overhead…. His wingspan close to 4 feet if that is possible. His head the purest white, black eyes roving to and fro as he surveys the lake beyond and forest below. I can feel his royalty…I say aloud, “YOU are magnificent!” Higher and higher he climbs effortlessly on thermals gaining more perspective as he circles above my head.

Somehow I think that Adytum conspired to send this glorious reminder to me. She seems to say that thoughts should be more like this eagle for they are things. They are born for adventureon the heights. They require great perspective. They require a lofty sense of wonder and rising above it all despite the circumstances below. They require magnitude of vision and belief behind them. This is no mere sparrow here soaring into the heavenlies above my head…This is who WE are. And really all the difference between planting Grand Fir and fruitless, scratching berry vines. Of clinging heartlessly to the earth crushing others in our race for more, or soaring into heaven toward our dreams, visions and desires.

“You,” Adytum speaks softly on the wind, “were born for greatness. Let your dreams, your thoughts and visions soar…..May it be so for you…” We are both “becoming”; both rising to our potential. How could I possibly let her down? I have some weeding to do....