On Butterflies and Optimism From Small Things!

....something for the optimists...

"He who is faithful in very little things is faithful also in much" 
Luke 16, 10

Imagine you're a caterpillar in the midst of massive death of your cells, your belly is liquefying, you feel terrible and you know you won't last much longer, then your head goes to mush, but wait....the death throes actually are not death throes at all, they are actually the first manifestations of a transformation...metamorphosis....a butterfly emerges from the case and flies away.... 

 

So, yesterday, I sat on my favourite rock looking out to sea, suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, a tortoiseshell butterfly appeared from the direction of the sea, fluttered around me in several swoops and circles for a bit and then continued on up over the cliff....I felt in my heart this was a blessing...I was at the right place at the right time,

...and, indeed, last weekend, the laurel hedge outside our house was in full flower (itself unusual...climate change?), but the flowers were absolutely covered in swarms of tortoiseshell butterflies.....I had never seen that before and I have lived here 3 years and a neighbour who has lived here for 20 years, said he had never seen that in all that time...I sat quietly and meditated on that ....

Butterflies are symbols of spiritual transformation and awakening of the soul and are indicative perhaps of labour pains prior to the birth of the new Heaven and the New Earth. It became apparent to me that the many butterflies were actually symbols of collective human transformation and that it is indeed happening despite the fact that it is difficult to believe ...

 
The Universe is always giving us messages to encourage our love, our peace and our optimism to unfold.....even though I may be considered a little mad if I go too far in the possibility that the butterflies are sending messages to me!

A Soul Discovers Her Still Centre

You have travelled far from the Source my child,
You have journeyed through aeons to the edge,
Along the way, You danced as pure energy,
An eternal light within the shifting sands of space and time.

You agreed to forget Your true nature,

You agreed to forget Your true origin,
You agreed to hide Your Beauty within.

The challenge was to remember….

And now You have moved to the still point.

To Your centre where You can begin Your journey home,
Where silence reigns supreme,
You are gently embraced by a transparent cloak of clarity,
You sit within a motionless sea of serenity
Your vision is alive,
Your vision is true.

You have found Yourself again by journeying inwards,

To where Your true self dwells,
To where Your greatest treasures reside,
They accumulated within You as You travelled,
Every single experience,
- The good and the bad -
Is kept there,
Though no judgement is attached to any of them.

They were simply experiences.

And now that You have discovered these treasures,
You have moved beyond them,
Into the unfathomable expanse of Beauty,
The Beauty within You,
A new You,
And You have found peace,
You have found joy,
You have found gentleness,
You have found love.

You have peeled away all the layers of Your amnesia,

Only the real, pure, glorious, wonderful You remains.

And You are not alone,

Choirs of Angels are now singing in exultation.

They know.

Your inner Angel has been revealed to the Universe.

 Still Centre by Courtney Davis
Image used with the written permission of Courtney Davis
http://courtneydavisart.com

Scientific American: The Deepening Crisis

There is an article in Scientific American this week: "The Deepening Crisis: When Will We Face the Planet's Environmental Problems? Failure to act on threats to global sustainability brings the world closer to disaster."

I find the problem for me with articles like this is that, reliable as they may be, they miss the hope that there is right now. They can add to the depression and become a self-fulfilling prophecy of negativity. I used to be SO despairing - what can I do? I was so desperate to do something, anything, but I didn't know what to do...I wrote letters to Governments on behalf of Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, I lobbied and I talked and I talked some more and, quite frankly, I became exhausted...it is now that I realise the consciousness of humanity and of this planet is rising...the state of Being of humanity is improving as more and more people wake up...it is amazing, from my own personal experience, to see how heart-based/non-ego-based consciousness brings about changes in the fabric of reality. As Prof John Wheeler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Archibald_Wheeler) said - we are participants in the universe). So, I now do have hope and optimism...I can see that it is up to us to BE the wayshowers...to contribute towards the raising of the collective consciousness of humanity.....that's not to say that we should not DO things too....I still grow my own veg and still write the letters, the challenge is to assimilate and act on the information (such as that provided in the Sci Am article), but not to be wrapped up in the drama anymore....when I pray and meditate for Mother Earth, I see her in a future which is clean, with clean energies and with co-operation and hope......a new Earth....this is the way we allow a better future for Mother Earth and for us to unfold....remember, we are the participants in the Universe and our thoughts and feelings do matter....we are continuously making a difference...

Peak Oil and Sustainable Energy in the New Era

By altering our state of Being we can allow a new state of Doing in the world to unfold....from the current moment in time, infinite possibilities flow....we don't have to choose the one most likely, based on our past way of Doing things....change your Heart, change your state of Being and you create a better future...there IS Peace NOW, there is clean energy NOW....believe it NOW, manifest it in your reality NOW....

The Beauty Of Apple Trees

In the orchard, the apple trees were loaded with fruit...so much, falling down on the ground...all around...

When she wrote, she didn't know about the trees, but she said:

"I guess the meaning is not to "look" at an apple tree with enthusiasm and interest as a child that sees an apple tree for the first or third time, but to acknowledge that we see an apple tree and let the energy of the apple tree reach us and flow into our eyes and heart...."

This seemed to me to be a wonderful description of how to sense Beauty....

Actually, what we see is only a small fraction of all the energy emanating from the apple tree - the energy our eyes can capture...just the electromagnetic wavelengths of visible light, but of course the tree - made of matter (crystallised energy if you like), part of the visible (to us) universe) is vibrating at a virtually infinite number of energetic frequencies, so it (the tree) actually exists in realms/dimensions of reality beyond our senses in addition to those we can see with our eyes.....

So, this is why no matter how hard we try to "see" the apple tree, our vision of the tree (through our eyes and processed in the mind) will never give us a complete appreciation of its Beauty.....

We should allow ourselves to "see" the tree with the aspects of ourselves that are also vibrating at these higher frequencies. The higher frequencies correspond to higher states of consciousness, and to do this we should allow ourselves to transcend the idea that we are separate from the tree, so that the energies passing between us and the tree can interact/exchange more easily, so we then truly begin to "see" the tree with our hearts by allowing "the energy of the apple tree [to] reach us and flow into our eyes and heart...."

I believe this is what happens when our consciousness expands from the heart - it fills the surroundings and we feel much more at-one with everything, since we become more sensitive in picking up the signals/energies in the environment around us....we sense the Beauty in our surroundings....