BY DOVE
This week I had the opportunity to take a bit of a road trip and it proved to be an opportunity for growth. In my over seven decades on the planet, I have found that I had to take a new path to who I was going to be at least nine times. That means I had to reinvent who I was a little more frequently than every 10 years. Making the choice to explore a new aspect of yourself is not necessarily easy. It takes courage, definitely faith and creativity, but the result was always freedom from who I used to be and it was time for a change.
The first instant it happened I was afraid of the consequences of becoming different. How would it affect my family, my work, my spiritual journey? Sometimes the shifts were very intense, long and hard, and sometimes the change was simple, just a change of thought. But I would not give up the growth for anything, as freedom of spirit was the end result of taking a new path to myself—a better self, in my opinion, one that I could enjoy to a greater extent.
Yesterday we ran into a road delay of four hours as we were headed north. We had many options as to our reactions. We had checked the road report and the report did not match the reality of the delay. We made the decision to relax and have a long lunch, good conversation and good food. The appointments we needed to keep we all managed successfully. While the work was being completed, I was walking in the forest and came upon the above beautiful trillium blooming its perfection. I wondered how often did the spirit of the trillium have to reinvent itself? Was it the same spirit there last year or did it become something else? The beauty of the forest takes my breath away and I just want to sit with the rocks, trees and animals.
I observed many varieties of trees supporting each other and creating the most picturesque environment. They worked in harmony together. We, as a species, have lost our focus on how to live together. Everyone I talk to is exhausted with all the divisiveness thrust upon us by outside sources. It’s time we shut down those with an agenda of separation and choose to just love as the energy of the forest does.
We saw a wild turkey on our adventure and I looked up the Native American meaning of “wild turkey.” It is the symbol of the giving away of possessions for the good of all. Maybe if we take time to clear all that we don’t use and give it to others, we could make vacant space in our lives for creating a new way to live harmoniously. It starts with one person. As the song says, “Let It Begin With Me.” Much love, Dove