Category: Meditations

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”
―Ralph Waldo Emerson

Which of your virtues has the world not yet discovered?

The barking of colony of sea lions can be heard a long way from the shore. Apparently being a sea lion is a very noisy job. We’ve all felt oppressed by being in the midst of an inescapable racket, but there are also times when it feels good to take up space and be loud.

In what situations do you like to be noisy? When do you like to be quiet?

You might dress up for church, or for work, or for a date or a concert or a party. Or you might dress up so that you could match the beauty of what you see around you, or as preparation for the road ahead.

What sort of outfit best suits what you see before you?

Nutritionists tell us that it’s healthy to eat fruits and vegetables that are a wide variety of colors. It’s probably also healthy for us to enjoy the pleasure of seeing many colors in flowers, fabrics, paintings and people.

In what ways and places do you get the most pleasure from colors?

Love should grow up like a wild iris in the fields,
unexpected, after a terrible storm, opening a purple
mouth to the rain, with not a thought to the future,
ignorant of the grass and the graveyard of leaves
around, forgetting its own beginning….

Love should
grow up like a wild iris, but doesn’t, it comes from
the midst of everything else, sees like the iris
of an eye, when the light is right,
feels in blindness and when there is nothing else is
tender, blinks, and opens
face up to the skies.

—Susan Griffin

In your experience, how does love grow?