Your April showers have been long and heavy. The downpour left little room at times to feel the space of light between the immensity of the bell-bottomed drops of rain. Umbrellas seemed to break...and buckets were filling with the "weight of waiting."
I have often felt foolish and clown-like dancing in front of the green screen pointing to warming-trends and mountain breaks promising this weather will clear - it will clear - and the sun will shine so brightly it will burn your eyes with joy.
You dug a trench - a deep trench in the ground. Here you prepared, you planted your souls, your love, your life...for these lives.
Some days it felt as though the boots of time were incomprehensibly frozen for you, yet sprinted for others - and I screamed and cried. Not only for your wait - but for your children's wait, for their family...for this lost piece of the jigsaw puzzle to present itself, so that you could finally see and enjoy the growth of your garden together.
This burden of staring at tilled soil and eagerly waiting for that first push of green leaf life to emerge - you shared with us.
You are changing many lives by sharing one...and to say thank you seems shallow and flippant.
How do you say 'thank you' to the towering tree that provides you shade?
How do you say 'thank you' to the winged bird that dances through the air?
How do you say 'thank you' to the cocooned metamorphosis of caterpillar to butterfly?
Your path through this valley meadow continues...you walk hand-in-hand with one another braving the tremors.
But not alone -
those shadows on the ground,
the glimpse of something in the corner of your eye,
the padded-down flower trail you walk along,
all from those that walked before you
those with you now
and those that will follow.
We live together.
Because this is the deepest meaning of yesterday, today and tomorrow -
this invitation
to turn our outstretched petals to the light
to the universe
to belief
to chance
to coincidence
to an intervening love
to a power or force that writes much better stories than we could ever imagine,
this is when we begin to learn the full meaning of our lives.
There is an old story - a legend - that the sweet innocents who are lost in childbirth scattered daisies on the earth to cheer their sorrowing parents.
Here are your flowers - your garden is growing.
You have daisies - wildflowers.
You have been given two precious seedlings to cultivate - to nourish.
As we wait, remember these things as you prepare for two shining faces:
Daisies abhor excessive moisture and do not tolerate shade.
They love the warmth of the sun.
Summer care may consist of little more than simple staking to prevent storm damage.
Most importantly, Daisies love a spring meadow and have a very long flowering season -
even producing soft scented flowers during winters.
"When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope." - Henri Nouwen
Oh, Eyes of My Eyes, welcome to the great expansive wonder of something wider, something deeper, something sweeter and more profound than ever imagined.
With all our love, Filoli and Alpha rejoice and shout to you, "Cheers!"
God will help thee bear what comes of joy and sorrow.
