The Earth is Magic - The Gospel According to Lily & Me

One afternoon recently 8 year old Lily came home with me. Actually Lily would say she's 8 1/2 since she asked if I knew the following day was her eight and a half birthday. 

As we got out of the car, I noticed something on the dash.  Upon taking a closer look, I saw it was a bee, a honeybee.  I held the bee in my palm and asked Lily if she would join me in honoring it. 

As the two of us stood in my backyard at Templeton's grave, I told the bee we loved it and thanked it for coming to Earth.  I then asked the other bee souls to come from the stars and take this bee's spirit home with them so it could rejoin its tribe.  I asked the bees to continue joining us here on Earth. 

We then placed the bee's body under a leaf at Templeton's headstone. Lily asked what would happen to the body and I replied it would return to the Earth. 

I didn't do this ritual with Lily because she is a child.  This is what I do with every living creature when I come upon an animal or bug that has died whether it's in my yard or along a neighboring street.  I wished I had told this dear child though the full story of why I honor the animals this way.  I sense and believe the bee or any animal held in love will take into the Earth the vibration of love and appreciation felt toward it. And I believe its spirit takes the same vibration into the stars.

Later that night I regretted not asking Lily if there was anything she wanted to say to the bee.  My forgetting to do so I suspect was triggered by her initial concern as to the bee stinging her as well as my not knowing what she might think of  'Aunt Dawn's' ritual. Would she think it odd or strange?

The next day while rummaging through a summer journal I came upon a drawing Lily gifted me as I hurriedly rushed out the door of her family's home to get to an event. 

When she first gave me this gift, I was quietly stunned by all the gray hair not to mention my stern expression.  I quietly wondered, "Is my hair really that gray or did she just not have a brown crayon to add a few strands here and there?' 

My concern was short lived after seeing the phrase written on my blue and green shirt. 

"The Earth is Magic."
 

Lily knows. The Earth is magic. We are magic.  Life on Earth is meant to be magical. The honoring of the bee and asking its star kin to help it find its way home is part of that magic. We know this truth when we're young even if it's for an oh-so brief time.  Some people especially artistic souls hold this truth into adulthood and never let it go.  Others like myself come back around to it later in life.  Unfortunately many forget and only glimpse magic while watching a movie.  Many I fear never remember what they came to Earth knowing.  

I wonder at times if some entity or person(s) controlling the world want us to forget what we know? Of course if this is true I suspect they've forgotten what they once knew.  

Fortunately as long as there is Nature and children, poets, artists and folks filled with wonder there's an opportunity to remember the Magic. 

Imagine the shift of remembering. 

We and Earth are magic.  

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 23 September 2012

dawn@imaginetheshift.com