"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
-- Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust has been strumming my heart strings lately. Whenever I think of a quote that captures what I’m feeling or thinking, Proust captures it in one short and pithy sentence.
I was on the phone a little while ago with my dearest best friend and soul sistah Medi Tate who challenged me to do my gratitude list before I called it a night. It’s 1:41 AM now and I’m not ready to call it a night yet. My heart is welling up with emotions of thankfulness for the pure and simple grace that envelopes my everyday existence.
This simple grace is unquantifiable, unidentifiable, untouchable, and yet I have that distinct sensation of shimmering god-dust sprinkling down on me, filling me with positive expectation of new and blessed beginnings. Maybe it’s the coming of spring, the budding of new leaves on deciduous trees, the raucousness of birds, or the lengthening days. Whatever it is, it makes my heart swell. No… I know exactly what it is – it’s a feeling of overflowing thankfulness.
Today was a day of emerging and forging friendships, friendships real and virtual. Friends are the god proxies who show up in our lives and make visible to us the Truth of that Invisible Loving Presence. Call it what you will – God, Buddha, Christ, Allah, Lakshmi, Krishna, karma, energy, universe. Call it “Something.” That “Something” that creates magic and miracles is made manifest to me through friends. Kindnesses, humor, beauty, art, poetry, epiphanies are shown to me through friends. Yes, they are the charming gardeners of my blossoming soul.
So I end this day with joyous thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
2 comments:
It's absolutely amazing to me that this thing called the internet can provide us with such inspiring, amazing, phenominal connections from all around the world.
This is a beautiful post Maya!
Namaste,
Jenn
Thank you for sending this to me. Funny how much of our thought processes are so interconnected, you took the words right out of my mind and my heart.
My thoughts and sentiments exactly. And, we have not even met yet.
Friends........friendships........gardening...... flowers......blossoms........beginnings.........rediscoveries...love. ....thanksgiving....all these encapsulates for me all that I would like to capture and keep close to my heart as I try to "find the spirit within" each person/friend that touches me and equally makes my heart swell.
Having been a gardener in my previous existence, I look to gardening as encompassing all the metaphors of life. My own sense of my own spirituality was borne out of weeding out all dead weeds, preparing the soil for the planting of new seeds and awaiting the growth of beautiful flowering plants right in front of my eyes. Being out there on the grounds allowed me the wonderful opportunities for self-introspection and contemplation which only drew me closer in touch with my inner soul leading me to connections with other kind souls who I call "friends."
The less traveled path that I took back then leads me to this day to the hearts of many. Each friend that I meet along the way, opens me up a little bit more to the next friend.. ...(as in Deepak Chopra's recycled relationship dogma).....and though it cannot be helped, some friends matter more than the others.....connections ever stronger.... and their absence only makes my heart grow fonder with a prayerful wish to bring us ever closer together in love, life, sickness, wellness and distance.
This is an answer to a prayer request I made a long while back that as spring comes, and the promise of new life begins, I would have my heart swelling in love, 'apasionadamente'
again.
And so in my garden of life, I have the added pleasure of adding my own.....my "just because flowers".....
new and old but rediscovered friends who I care for deeply...mainly, "just because......" they make my heart swell in joyfulness and thankfulness as well, for which I will forever be humbled because they too have chosen to be a part of my garden of life.
"Seeds do not grow on their own nor small plants blossom without the nurturing hands of loving gardeners."
raffie
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