Wisdom of the garden

Last week I visited the garden of Phakalane in Hout Bay to look for images. If we take time to feel, see and listen we can find that this garden contains so much profound wisdom. 

Life is happening regardless. 

It is an energy which pushes through, shows beauty and opens.

Flowers are not hiding under the grass, they are being outed in a shameless competition.

They don’t have to think about this. They know it is their purpose to show up.

Life finds a way without reasoning, worry or fear in total abundance.

Finally, a flower is unfolding in total beauty and what was holding her back is supporting her stem.

What seemed to be a chaos of hindrances turns into a supporting web.  

The secret is to let it happen regardless.

The Messenger

Writing is magic. A few magical signs drawn on a piece of paper create an image or a whole story in our mind and might even let us have a body sensation. This is true magic.

David Abram once wrote that there is no difference between the indigenous Navajo listening to a rock and us reading a written story.

Today I encountered this little bird. Curious he was looking at me instead of flying away.

Maybe he was telling me something in a language I cannot understand anymore. Maybe I have forgotten its words and symbols.

Maybe it was in a different life, that I would remember it in an instant and its magic would have been as real as words on a paper.

So today I met this little messenger.

Was he bringing me a message from a long-lost lover? He was waiting there for me knowing that I am drawn deep into the indigenous part of the forest. Something is pulling me there, to this place at the bubbling stream under the ancient trees. Something feels as if I have been here before, long before I was born into this present world.

I have been here before when I was hunting buck. I was looking for its tiny footprints in the soft earth at the edge of the water.

I cannot forget that I saw you when I was looking up.

Beautiful bright patches of light were moving on your brown skin. As our eyes met, you were caught, unable to run away.

I am drawn forever to the place where I met you for the first time. I wish I could understand the birds message. But I know it is a message of unending love.