The Beauty of a Tree

I love trees. There are so many varieties producing everything from shade to food, building materials and shelter. Like people, some are short and stout and some are tall and slender. Also like people they all possess an individual beauty and their leaves and branches are all nourished by the same roots.

New Mexico does not have an abundance of green grass, but we do have an interesting assortment of trees. The above photos show off a few. The top is a fall photo of the Aspen on Mt. Taylor; the middle photo is of my favorite Willow tree in our local park and the bottom photo is of a determined tree growing from a boulder on the Sand Bluffs in Cibola County,overlooking a lava bed.

When I thought of writing a post on trees I couldn’t help remembering the poem “Trees” that I first heard centuries ago. The beautiful poem was written by Joyce Kilmer 1886-1918. How fitting that her words were written so many years ago. I think it is a positive message to all of us writers who sometimes wonder if anyone is really listening to what we have to say. You just never know how many times your words are going to be repeated or how many people they might help. So my message is just keep doing what you are doing!

Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Feelings and Emotions

(This anonymous piece was posted by Priya Deelchand, the administrator of the facebook group “Happiness is Your Birthright”)

Once upon a time all feelings and emotions went to a coastal island for a vacation. According to their nature, each was having a good time. Suddenly, a warning of an impending storm was announced and everyone was advised to evacuate the island.

The announcement caused sudden panic. All rushed to their boats. Even damaged boats were quickly repaired and commissioned for duty.

Yet, Love did not wish to flee quickly. There was so much to do. But as the clouds darkened, Love realized it was time to leave. Alas, there were no boats to spare. Love looked around with hope.

Just then Prosperity passed by in a luxurious boat. Love shouted, “Prosperity could you please take me in your boat?’

“No”, replied Prosperity, “my boat is full of precious possessions, gold and silver. There is no place for you.”

A little later Vanity came by in a beautiful boat. Again Love shouted, “Could you help me Vanity? I am stranded and need a lift. Please take me with you.”

Vanity responded haughtily, “No, I cannot take you with me. My boat will get soiled with your muddy feet.”

Sorrow passed by after some time. Again, Love asked for help. But it was to no avail. “No, I cannot take you with me. I am so sad. I want to be by myself.”

When happiness passed by a few minutes later, Love again called for help. But Happiness was so happy that it did not look around, hardly concerned about anyone.

Love was growing restless and dejected. Just then somebody called out, “Come Love I will take you with me.” Love did not know who was being so magnanimous, but jumped on to the boat, greatly relieved that she would reach a safe place.

On getting off the boat Love met Knowledge. Puzzled, Love inquired, “Knowledge, do you know who so generously gave me a lift when no one else wished to help?”

Knowledge smiled, “Oh that was Time.”

And why would Time pick me up and take me to safety, Love wondered.

Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and replied “Because only Time knows your true greatness and what you are capable of. Only Love can bring peace and great happiness to the world.”

Love is...

This morning the word love was uppermost in my thoughts. I decided it would make an interesting blog post. It took me a good part of my life to understand that love and sex are not the same thing. Perhaps I am a slow learner or maybe it had to do with the life experiences I chose. Anyway, today I know that true love has little to do with any organ below the heart.

Curious, I began poking around on the net to see what I could locate to back up my current belief. The first thing I found was this quote from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.”

Often when I think of the word love I remember the 1970 award winning movie Love Story and its now famous quote, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” This also brings back the memory of a Priest who focused an entire sermon on the words, because he was angry. Truthfully, I have never figured out what the writer Erich Segal intended them to mean. Why wouldn’t you say you are sorry if you really are?

Love for others is expressed in many ways. Random acts of kindness, sending a card or making a phone call just to say hello, a gentle hug or understanding smile when someone is having a tough day cost little, but they let others know that they are loved.

I found some great quotes on love that I want to share, beginning with this one from Og Mandino, “Do all things with love.”

“Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.” from Tuesday’s With Morrie~ Mitch Albom

“It is sad not to love, but much sadder not to be able to love.” ~Miguel de Unamuno

“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.” ~Judy Garland

“Love is always bestowed as a gift- freely, willingly and without expectation. We don’t love to be loved we love to love. ~Leo Buscaglio

“God is love”…and when you love you are like Him. ~St. John

I just couldn’t leave out the kids, because as Art Linkletter discovered years ago, they say the darnedest things. Perhaps we should listen to them!

“If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend you hate.” ~Nikka (6)

This story is about a 4 yr old whose neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had just lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the man’s yard, climbed onto his lap and just sat there. When his mother asked what he had said to the man the boy replied, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.” Wow! To be that loving!

God Sees and Hears All

I had an interesting experience over last weekend involving a female friend. This person possesses a great deal of negative energy, which I do my best to tune out. I mentally draw a circle of protection around myself when we are together. She is very prejudice, mostly against Native Americans. She wants more than anything to sell her house and move out of New Mexico. I am beginning to wonder if God/Source is keeping her here to teach her a lesson. I can almost sense a universal smile.

We were headed for Gallup, NM (about 60 miles away) to shop in the mall and have a nice lunch. The biggest store we have in Grants is Wal-Mart and our restaurants are pretty much Mexican or Oriental. It is nice to have a better choice now and then.

She soon began complaining about her predicament. I countered with the fact that there wasn’t much she could do about it until she found a buyer for her house. I told her to stop focusing on what she thought was a problem and focus on the moment, adding it was really all she had. I suggested she be grateful for what she has been given. That didn’t go over too well, but at least I tried.

After leaving J.C. Penney’s, where we took advantage of a great sale, the first words out of my friend’s mouth were, “The only people we saw in the store were Indian.” I didn’t respond, but thought, “So do you want them to find a new planet to live on?” After all, Gallup, NM is occupied mostly by Native Americans. We were in their town!

We went on to finish our shopping, had a wonderful lunch at Applebee’s and headed home in near 100 degree heat. Luckily we were comfortable in her bright red Mustang with air conditioning. She loves expensive cars and driving fast. Her tastes are a little above what I need to make me happy, but that is her way.

Later that evening I received a frantic call from my friend telling me that after a trip to the grocery store her radiator was spewing anti freeze all over her garage. She made the comment that God had protected her on the trip back home. I, on the other hand, immediately and silently expressed my gratitude to Source that it had not happened on the interstate in all that heat.

While my friend unsuccessfully spent the rest of the weekend trying to get her car fixed, I enjoyed a very relaxing Sunday puttering around my house and yard and even connected with a couple of new friends via the net. This morning I drove my friend to work because her car is still not fixed.

I am not taking credit for anything, but I can’t help wondering just how much her negative and my positive energy played a part in the outcome of this story. A quote by Abraham/Hicks seems to fit just right- “Appreciation of others and yourself are the closest vibrational matches to source…”

Then there was Light

“He who would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. ~Benjamin Franklin

What a "bright" man Mr. Franklin was. I wish I had seen that quote a long time ago; it might have saved me a lot of pain. Lately I have been making a conscious effort to keep my mouth shut when I see or hear something that is not right- according to me. If you could overhear my soul mind talking to my ego mind you would be catching a lot of “leave it alone that has nothing to do with you!”

It is especially difficult for mothers of grown children to just make suggestions and leave the decision to take them or not up to the "child". Sometimes I look at my children ages 49, 44, and 30 and think, "did I do that?" I know I did the best that I could to teach them good values and if they didn't follow my example- oh well! I am no longer taking responsibility for the way they now live their lives.

When I look around and see others wasting what they have, abusing their bodies, being intentionally mean spirited or showing little gratitude for anything it is hard to keep quiet. I believe one of my big goals for this lifetime is to learn when to butt out and let others make their own mistakes. I have to constantly remind myself that I do not know all the details in that person’s life.

I spent most of my adult life trying to retrain other people to fit my idea of what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. What an enormous waste of time and energy that was. Life is a whole lot easier just taking care of me. No way do I consider myself perfect, but I am a much more balanced person than I was when I started my "conscious" journey to enlightenment eleven years ago.

Enlightenment

So then I thought...
Two months after the sudden disappearance of “iffin” from my life my opinion is he and his best bud KS are two of a kind. Although they both claim to be great communicators, they are a joke. I suspect they led previous lives as a comedy routine in a cheap Las Vegas show. As long as others say exactly what is expected everything is hunky dory. If the person actually has a workable brain and dares to put it in gear, whoosh John and Kate vanish faster than a speeding bullet.

I am trying to figure out what the lesson was. Think, but don’t speak is rather negative and just not my style of living. The only positive one I can come up with is- I am not responsible for what anyone else chooses to do. Sounds good to me!

Am I angry? Absolutely not, I wish both of them peace, good health and happiness. It is a shame that they did not stick around long enough to appreciate what they are missing. In retrospect I certainly hope this is the last time I will have to deal with this particular lesson.

Lessons
Life is full of everyday lessons
Based on experiences each has had
Endings always signal beginnings
Adding new experiences to our past
Slowly waking and accepting
Lessons needed to stay on our path.
Barbara Gunn 2001

quotes on the subject from Buddha

"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared then a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal; you are the one who gets burned."

Home is where the Heart is

Over Memorial Day my daughter, my grandson and I took a trip to Colorado Springs to visit my son. It was a fun filled three days as you can see from the above photo taken of Colin. We had stopped on the way to enjoy a picnic lunch in Raton, NM. It was pretty windy so lunch was a bit brief, but it gave Colin a chance to use up some energy before getting back in the car. He is a great little traveler!

After leaving New Mexico we began spotting glimpses of the magnificent Rocky Mountains, which were our companions for the rest of the trip. Of course as we approached Colorado Springs we had a close up view of Pikes Peak.

Saturday was our big tourist day. We started out at Peterson Air Force base to take in the Air and Missile Museum. There are twelve retired planes and various missiles outside allowing a close up view plus a building with historical paraphernalia. Our guide asked Colin if he wanted to go inside one of the planes and of course, he said yes. It was a Lockheed EC-121T “Warning Star”, the biggest plane on the lot! Not only did he go inside he sat in the navigator chair and the cockpit and worked the controls. This particular plane was used for radar missions and could hold a crew of 22.

After lunch we moved on to the Cave of the Winds. This is a huge limestone cave discovered in the late 1800s by two young brothers, George and John Picket; who were out for a day’s exploration with their church group. The cave is full of stalactites and stalagmites. Colin, a little less than 4ft. tall, loved passing on the instructions to duck to his over 6ft. uncle. We all came out the exit in one piece.

Next we drove through the Garden of the Gods, which are huge limestone formations. I was a little disappointed, probably due to the fact that we have beautiful sandstone bluffs close to where we live in New Mexico.

Sunday Uncle Jeff had purchased tickets to the minor league Sky Sox game right down in front. Colin was thrilled and came away with a team jersey, a baseball cap, an orange finger and a program signed by the team mascot- Sox the Fox. Oh and by the way, the Sky Sox won 3 runs to 2.

The rest of the entertainment came from my son’s house. His basement is a home theater, complete with lounge chairs and all the goodies. So when we weren’t otherwise occupied we watched movies. His other passion is the barbecue grill and we found out he is a very good cook!

Although the trip was fun and we saw many new things, I was very happy to return home. I think Dorothy was right, “There is no place like home!”