Gifts from the Yard

I have some gifts from the yard I want to share with you.

I broke off a small bit of the pear tree, so I brought it inside and placed it on my desk.  We are studying alter making today in class.  I jumped ahead!  I also found the crystal with a tree of life wrapped in wire around it.  It was on a broken chain, so I believe it was left for me to find.  It was in the soil that I dug up from the back yard.  I was sifting through the soil, removing rocks to use in the patio.  

I am so grateful I am receiving. This journey has me opening my awareness to small blessings, that I would have previously overlooked.  I admit, sometimes, it can be too much, too fast.  I realize that I am not in a race, that I can savor these experiences, the small gifts, the birdsong, the tiny flower, the breeze on my skin.  So much to take for granted, to rush through.  

My confidence is growing along with my awareness.  Like any journey, it is not always forward.  Sometimes, I trip and fall down a psychological, emotional or spiritual hill.  But I am learning to get up, take my measure, feel what I am feeling and head back in the general direction I was going before.

The other day, I set of to take a walk.  Exercise!  It is good for me!  But I stopped and started looking around.  I saw plants the I recognized and some that I did not.  I thought about them and how they lived where they lived and the conditions they favored. I believe I got so much more out of that observational walk than I would have from a brisk exercise walk.  Missing the forest for the trees.

Even being on the lookout for gifts from the yard, I can overlook what is already there.  Looking for spiritual meaning can keep me from being present sometimes.  I am trying to sit, to clear, to receive, to be.  It is a moment by moment practice.