Morning Glories

Thank goodness for morning glory vines with new green tendrils swaying in the air, seeking, then finding and wrapping themselves around, the decorative metal garden trellis for support as they grow from earth toward heaven. No one shows them how to do this. They just know. Star-shaped morning glories have heart-shaped leaves, bloom in the morning, wither and die in the afternoon. They remind us life is short. Spread heavenly beauty while you can.

Glory is a source of admiration, resplendent beauty or magnificence, a state of great prosperity, absolute gratification, contentment. It represents the splendor and bliss of heaven, the time of greatest achievement, success. It refers to the radiance or light surrounding the head or whole figure of a sacred person. It can mean to triumph, rejoice proudly. The vine’s continuous morning creation of a seemingly endless supply of indigo, magenta and blue blossoms is a rich triumph, achievement, success. A reminder of sacred prosperity. In the unified field of energy where all is one, connected, I am that vine, those blossoms. Its qualities are my qualities. This reminder is one of the glorious gifts of spending time in a garden.

Focusing on the morning glory's innate knowing of how to do what it has not done before reminds me of the inner wisdom guiding me as I once again face the unknown. There is great comfort in knowing that this week. Once the rush of activity surrounding hip surgery, hospital stay, home health care and visits from friends and family was over, it became quiet. What now? What am I to do now in this silent emptiness of living alone again? Do? Of course there are the writing projects. There is walking the packed dirt trail along the sides of the acequia (irrigation ditch) in the bosque (forest), greeting the mother duck with three ducklings, filling the orthopedic surgeon’s prescription to “stay active, walk, don’t be a couch potato.” But that takes less than an hour. What else am I to do with myself in this time of healing? I don’t know what to do about the Caregiver’s Journey book I’m writing. I don’t know what to do with my real estate license. I don’t know what to do about a troubling family situation. Be. Oh. Thank you, Rob Brezsny (“Free Will Astrology,” from the Albuquerque Alibi ): “During the upcoming grace period, it will make sense for you to be perfectly content with the state of your life just as it is. To do so won’t make you lazy and complacent. Just the opposite, in fact: it will charge your psychic batteries and create a reservoir of motivational energy for the second half of 2012.” Do be. Please forgive me here for remembering the metaphysical comedian who called Frank Sinatra a master of enlightenment for his singing of “do-be-do-be-do.”

“Grace period,” hmmmm…. Grace is unearned love freely given. How hard it is for me to accept the gift of unearned love, of time freely given just to be, just to heal. Time to read, nap, write, cook, go for walks, work in the garden, tend to the house, time to take care of myself. It won’t make me lazy or complacent? I don’t have to know what to do about what’s facing me next? There’s wisdom within me that does know and will guide me? Okay. I am willing to be with that. Thank goodness for morning glories. Do their heart-shaped leaves have something to say as well? Are they like the heart meridian that is in the palm of our hand? What about their continuous renewal? Their ongoing expression of beauty? What else do they want to say? I will sit and listen. I will sit and be with what is.