Once again, I write to you from the branches of my thinking tree. Autumn is setting in and this big old oak is tired now. His leaves graciously shake themselves free and scatter playfully in the breeze. I watch the flurry of amber and fiery reds and remember how I felt as a child as the trees grew more bare. How I would wish that they would stay lush and vibrant and that their leaves would not desert them so. With innocent compassion I would usher comforting words ‘it’s okay tree’. Now, as I lean back into the embrace of the wide, welcoming trunk, I feel that actually all is very well. If anything there is a sense of relief. Through the spring and summer months, this tree gladly shared his energy to help maintain the health of those leaves; he held them lovingly, his vitality flowing into every one, so that they might grow lustrous and green. He has played his part; he is content and ready for the long sleep of winter.
Finding their way
A brisk breeze carries the rusted leaves further along the mountain path to where the wild horses lazily huddle together. They rush and rustle along and I imagine that they are excitedly pursuing a new journey. Who knows what is in store for them, what joy they will be a part of, in autumnal child’s play, how far and high the winter winds will take them before they eventually become a part of the earth and maybe even go on to form a fairy circle of mushrooms … who knows maybe they will return to the elemental form of the fairies that they were all along! I smile. Everything is just as it is meant to be. Everything is perfect.
Homeward bound
The wind has picked up. It is nippy. Home is calling. I will take my notebook home and come back to you from the warmth and comfort of my sofa.
There is nothing like that feeling is there? The feeling of coming home. I love to come through the door, dosed up on fresh air, fingers cold and my cheeks pinched and rosy. Then to sink into my cushions, my nest. If there’s a hug and a smile waiting for me, well that is all the better.
Where have I been?!
I’ve been going along busily missing such simple pleasures recently. It’s not just that I’m busy though. It’s more than that. I’ve been deeply distracted, just as I am guessing you have. Everyone’s feeling the shifts in energies. We all have different interpretations of them but I think I would be safe to say that we have been reacting the same way. Our souls are stirring; we feel there’s something we ought to be doing … like saving the world! And so like rabbits keeping watch, we keep sticking our heads out of the burrow, frantically and clumsily ‘doing our part’. This is why it was such a relief for me to be reminded that everything is just as it is meant to be. Everything is perfect. The world doesn’t need saving any more than my thinking tree or the autumn leaves.
Bring it back to the family
So I’ve decided to stop poking my head out there and to take a better look around here, in my home, instead. I’m going to feel my roots again.
The way I see it, to appreciate, to bless and to love what I have right here at home is playing my part. Charity starts at home after all. If we can’t fill our homes with love, how can we ever expect to fill the world with love?
As I write this, the perfect music is playing in the background. I used to play The Cave Of Gold by Lynn Morrison [Cygnus code D100733] for my son Cian, when he was a baby. Listening to the CD now I am washed over by the warmest sensation of pure love. I remember the feel of my baby in my arms, the sweet baby smell, the closeness of sharing a special moment completely – heart to heart, consciousness to consciousness, so that there is nothing else but the focus of love, there is nothing else but love.
This strikes me as a good cure for distractions – to simply refocus, recall and receive the love that my family bless me with and to reflect love back to them from my heart.
What about the vision
Sometimes the distraction can get people pretty hooked. But remember that visions and callings are always, always born of love and founded on the principle of serving the good of all. We have to be careful that we don’t forget where our vision or calling stemmed from, that we don’t forget what is at its core. How much are we willing to sacrifice in the name of love … and at what point does the name of love replace the truth of love? I think it’s a good idea to be conscientious and honest with ourselves, in these relevant times, about whether we are sacrificing a happy home, a happy family … love … for our vision. Surely any vision that requires you to sacrifice love has become distorted wouldn’t you say?
It is okay to let go
What if the tree hadn’t given up his leaves? He’d have expended all his energy trying to keep those leaves green and for what? The leaves would miss their time and their opportunity for adventure! If we keep feeding our energy into a distorted version of our calling, we will expend our energy and our vision would miss it’s opportunity to manifest into exactly what it was always meant to be.
If you’re having trouble letting go of something that isn’t serving you and your loved ones well, I recommend you read the book The Jacket Technique which teaches a simple, extremely effective technique for this.
Keeping warm
My mother reminded me today that ‘all you need is love’ (she even sang it to me!). With this I am reminded that all I ‘ought to be doing’ is to let love flow. I mean real love – the kind you can cocoon yourself and your family in, the pure love that can fuel your hearth fire and keep your home warm and happy. I bet if everyone was to dedicate themselves to the vision of a happy, healthy home – it would spread enough peace and love through humanity to satisfy that soul calling and ease us through these times.
Gretchen Rubin shares W B Yeat’s sentiments on happiness in her book Happier At Home (see page 10). ‘Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing’. The seasons are perfectly aligned to promote growth so I say we go with it – lets lighten our load, shake free the pressure of the world and trust that our leaves of true love will set out and be shared on the universal winds, falling exactly where they are meant to and manifesting into exactly what were born to do.
Wishing you an autumn full of love, life and laughter … don’t forget to keep warm!
With love and smiles,
Louisa and the Cygnus Team