Waking Up to Love

Here it is December. While most folks are rushing about doing the holiday thing, I'm still smiling at Autumn and the thought of my young adult nephews donning turkey hats for a Thanksgiving photo. Although yesterday I did find myself thinking of the wise men.

I had just returned from my morning walk, where at one point I stood mesmerized in a mass of golden ginkgo leaves that had blown from under 'their' tree to the sidewalk on which I travel.

Drivers zipped past in cars as I stood in the leaves wondering if any other walkers-by had noticed these delicate, fan-shaped treasures some still holding a hint of green. I asked permission to pick up a few for a miniature bouquet. I felt like Earth's bride holding those six little leaves in a cluster.

Their beauty prompted me to wonder if the Japanese maple in my own yard still held its leaves. I had been mindful that of the six little maples in our yard, only one as of last week was covered in red. I visited it just about every day to acknowledge and appreciate its beauty.

I was deeply happy to return home and see many leaves still on the tree. Gratitude welled within me as I realized Nature is largely responsible for waking me, for showing me the beauty of my heart and providing a key to accessing deep feeling and experience that has for so long been buried.

I grabbed my camera and took a couple of shots as I heard myself softly singing, "Hallelujah." I touched the trunk of this dear tree and continued singing. What sacredness I felt, kneeling before this part of God's creation, my forehead in a pile of leaves.

I felt like one of the wise men before the Christ child, whose presence and life were all about Love, the transformative power of Loving compassion.

Experiencing deep love whether through the vehicle of Christ, Buddha, the Goddess, a person or Nature is transformative. It wakes us up. The more of us who are awake to love, the greater the likelihood of a global shift to loving. Maybe this is connected to why things of beauty in the world so often seem under assault. So many have been hurt by love or those who were suppose to love them. So many do not have self-love so they can't appreciate their own beauty, nor beauty in their loved one, a child or .... a tree.

In this the Season of Love, I envision a world in which every season, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, is a season of Love because we realize the beauty that resides inside, inside the many cycles of Nature evident all around us and inside our insides, our bodies, hearts and minds.

May we all wake up to Love.

-Dawn! The Good News Muse, 7 Dec. 2010