Looking and Seeing

Look.
See.
Within the Flower
sits the Bee.

My mind races from thought to thought like the flashing of the pixels on a computer screen. I think everything is still and silent ~ until I am focused on the Bee. Then I recognize that I've been in that strange outer world of technology and light. It's the world I've created, the world in which I operate most of the time. The world of busyness and speed.

There's a difference between looking at something and truly seeing it. While striding past a patch of flowers, heading toward my car, I noticed the bright tones of gold and orange blossoms and the subtle dark green leaves. The stunning contrast caught me up short and I turned to look more closely while grabbing my camera in my bag. This was the first step ~ I looked at the composition of the patch of flowers.

When I stopped to regard the patch more closely, the movement of the bees in flight above it caught my attention. I stood still for the space of a few purposeful breaths, slow and deep, allowing my eyes to travel the bee's dance. That's when I saw a number of the bees landing on blooms, strolling through and collecting pollen.

Seeing the bees land and dance on the blooms, I raised my camera, focused and snapped the picture. The entire process didn't take long, yet it required that I pause my perpetual motion long enough to slide from noticing to looking to seeing. Each step brought me closer to the bright dance of flower, pollen and bee.

I am grateful for the flash of color, for my eyes that saw it, for my mind that recognized its beauty, for the deceleration it brought. My world is full of moments like this.

What do you allow to slow you down? What catches your eye? How do your traverse that chasm from looking to seeing? How often do you notice whatever is in the natural world around you? How diverse are the feelings you have when you slow down?

Full Moon in Scorpio

Sunday brings with it the May Full Moon ~ in Scorpio. Amazing that in the month filled with blossoms and revelations of the Spring to Summer months, the Full Moon shows Herself in Scorpio, the sign dealing with everything we prefer to keep hidden.

It's time to uncover the path and the pieces for the next segment of our journey. These may be parts we don't want to notice much less acknowledge. For the sake of our own creativity and growth, we need to allow that cool lunar glow to illuminate the way for us, no matter how dark and ugly things may look.

The capacity to continue ~ and blossom ~ in our creativity depends on on our willingness to let the shadow ~ our personal shadow/daemon, what we've supressed, denied or disowned ~ out into the light. Embrace our wholeness! Bask in becoming integrated! Commit to the process of growth, of becoming. Walk through worldly chaos to that quiet spot in our core. To do all this requires us to step outside our comfort zone with open hearts as well as guided and guarded psyches.

As you prepare to encounter and embrace the Scorpio Full Moon, consider where you have lost your power, your vitality, your passion. Where are you playing it safe, hiding in the shadows, not playing your edge? What can you discard in order to create what you truly want?

Solstice Helleborus

 

It may be the Winter Solstice here, but my Helleborus is trying to bloom. Despite freezing rain. Despite below freezing temperatures. Despite early morning frost. They look so delicate, so fragile, so beautiful. I'm amazed at how hardy they truly are!

This is so true of us humans as well! We blossom in our own time. Despite pain. Despite failures. Despite grief. All the things we often believe will destroy us or stop us or prevent us from going on. We may appear delicate or down-trodden or desolate, but we find a connection with the deep-rootedness of our souls.

Winter Solstice brings the longest night.... and then the Light Returns! The reason for our blossoming, for our breaking forth from the Earth Mother and reaching for the Stars.

What do you wish for as we begin to emerge into the coming light? What keeps you blossoming? What lights your way from the depths?