When navigating, it is obviously important to know where you are to start with. This seal has climbed out of the sea for a rest – its navigational skills are not in question but it looks as if it is asking the question, ‘Who am I?’. Likely, it was probably asking, ‘Who are you taking […]
Whenever you read this, you will be in a season of nature and in a season of your own life. We tend to think of seasons as a time of change as living things inevitably transition from one state to another. Nature’s baton is handed from one season to the next and we tend to think of the first ‘runner’ as being ‘Spring’, the word coming from ‘springing time’ in the fourteenth century. By the sixteenth century, this was shortened to ‘Spring’ describing how plants come forth from the ground (the Latin being ‘ver’ or ‘tempus primum’ as in ‘first time’). This ‘baton of life’ is handed on to Summer which runs on at a more leisurely pace. If Spring could suggest the morning, then Summer well conveys a lazy long afternoon and the promise of harvest. What do you associate with a Summer’s day? Where are you in the seasons of life and the seasons of the soul?
How much do you know about your heart? It began beating before you were born, 22 days after you were conceived! Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. The human heart has been described as ‘very deep’ which maybe apt when you consider its ability to pump 2,000 gallons per day. An Olympic swimming pool holds about 450,000 gallons so it takes a heart 220 days to pump this! In 70 years, a heart pumps 51,100,000 gallons – this is an amazing 114 swimming pools so it’s not surprising we can get a bit weary with every extra year! The heart has inspired poets, lovers, writers, scientists and philosophers. Aristotle identified it as ‘the seat of the soul and emotions’. How much can happen in a heartbeat?
Who do you think said this – ‘When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves’? They were some inspired words from Buddha.
What does JOY mean to you? Is it to do with purity and the beauty of a summer’s day with no cloud in the sky?
‘Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift’’– words of another wise man … Albert Einstein. How are you doing with ‘nature’s most beautiful gift’?! Does joy mean something more to you? No clouds in the sky sounds a good start – if matched by a clear mind, purity and no shadows then the day is full of promise.
