A Snake keeps hissing in our ears:
Don't we want to be like God?
Don't listen. Don't respond.
A flower is a story that Nature keeps telling Herself. Some flowers smell nice. They send their gentle perfume on the waves of the air to uplift our spirits and draw in the bees who will make them even sweeter than they've been.
Some flowers are fragrant. Other stink.
But whether they make us sick or make us smile, we must let them run their course if we want their honey. When their story is over, we allow them to wither, and go.
Until you build up a mental catalogue of Nature's sacred verses -- the symbols you can go to again and again for dependable inspiration -- you might find yourself in this position: needing Wisdom, but not knowing where to look.
We know the answer's in the book, but damn...where?
Daily verse is the ritual which builds your catalogue of dependable inspiration.
In times of transition, Nature gets messy.
But it's only a matter of time before the mess is washed away by rain. It's only a matter of time before the rain is dried up by Sun. It's only a matter of time before the Sun nourishes, then coaxes, then evokes, and then unfolds the buds of new growth. So go ahead, if it's that time in your year, stick your hands in the mud and have a little Hope in the process.
Life has its seasons...
How many times have your mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical circumstances "dropped in temperature," causing you to submit to an impulse to protect yourself via "insulation?" Let's put it this way: How many times have you grabbed a bucket of ice-cream because...YOU...JUST...CAN'T...?
Insulate. Go ahead. It's alright. But do it with awareness.
Where will that narrow pass lead you? Within the Chaos and Silence of this moment in your Vigil, Nature whispers: Every birth is preceded by a Strait.
The Earth Breathes. Even in the cold.
No matter how cold it may become in your mind, in your heart, in your nerves, your bones, your body -- when we see our breath, we are reminded that we are Alive.
Handmaid and Queen,
Absorb my gentle assault, and Know me as I Know you.