Spring has Sprung!
Paul: We haven’t’ talked lately.
Gypsy: Yes, I know. I wonder why?
Paul: I know, I know. After you published your book of our conversations, I wondered if there would be anymore conversations. I was afraid there wouldn’t be.
Gypsy: And I wondered if you didn’t need or want me anymore.
Paul: Do you mean that I didn’t value our relationship and friendship?
Gypsy: Well, yes! You just didn’t seem interested in connecting with me lately. I also noticed that you had someone new in your life that you were spending time with.
Paul: To be honest, I do have a new friend and I spend time talking and emailing to this friend, but that isn’t why I haven’t taken time to sit down and converse with you. You are still the love of my life and that won’t ever change.
Gypsy: The only time we have is the present.
Paul: And I want to make the most of it which is why I am talking with you.
Gypsy: I appreciate your honesty and willingness to discuss our relationship.
Paul: I apologize for my lapse and being afraid that you wouldn’t be there if I tried to talk to you.
Gypsy: I haven’t gone away.
Paul: Which is why, even though I am on my way to Seattle on a plane, I decided to connect with you. I know that this connection is through the heart and that time and space can’t separate us.
Gypsy: I’m proud that you had the courage to reach out to me.
Paul: Sometimes it seems like the smallest things are the hardest to do at times.
Gypsy: It makes one vulnerable to reach out because one doesn’t know what will happen. It is the uncertainty of life that often makes us afraid to act.
Paul: Yes, I’m reading a book about that by Benne Brown. Maybe that is why I decided to try to communicate with you.
Gypsy: So, you have learned the lesson well: that it is through the heart that we connect with each other. Courage is just speaking our hearts to one another and I appreciate you doing that with me.
Paul: These are hard lessons to learn. It takes practice daily! We have never conquered our fear, yet this is the catalyst for us to try which is strange: that the things that keep us apart are also the same thing that makes us need each other. How can two opposite things exist at the same time.
Gypsy: This is the duality of life!
Paul: Agreed.
Gypsy: Now you are truly understanding. I hope we can have more conversations in the future.
Is there anything else you would like to share with me?
Paul: This is hard to say or maybe I should say hard to put into words or maybe it is hard finding the words to say what I am feeling. And then again, I’m not really even knowing what I’m feeling. I think it is this ambiguity that keeps me from reaching out some times. I’ll try.
Gypsy: I’m listening.
Paul: Yes, you are a good listener. That shows how much you care about me.
Gypsy: You have been in the garden quite a lot lately.
Paul: Spring has sprung! The garden has been calling me. Whenever the temperatures warm up and the rains come and the sun shines I know it is time to begin preparing and planting the garden.
Gypsy: I see that you got all these little packets in the mail the other day. I wondered what they are?
Paul: They are seeds for the garden! I had the hardest time trying to decide what to get, and to put my order in to the seed company. The first time I did the order on the computer and I went back to complete the order, and all the work I had done was lost and I had to start over again.
Gypsy: You must have felt frustrated! But you didn’t give up and you finally got your order in.
Paul: Yes, and I was really happy when the seeds arrived a few days later; all the way from Oregon.
Gypsy: So now you feel you have a mission to bring these seeds to life?
Paul: Exactly. That is why I have been spending so much time in the garden. I have to prepare a place for each seed or plant to go. I want things just right for them to be successful.
Gypsy: I notice you pull up the soil with your hands to form a little mound, just like I do with my feet when I use the bathroom.
Paul: Yes, I guess you are right; I never thought about the fact that you have been showing me how to do this all along. Well, maybe it just took awhile to sink in.
Gypsy: I’m pleased! Animals have long known how to dig in the soil, weave nests, build dams, and much more. When humans came along they thought they invented all these things. And they thought they were the only ones who had the intelligence to do these things.
Paul: Now we admit that we share the same traits of other species of life.
Gypsy: Perhaps this traits came through other species to humans.
Paul: Yes, you are absolutely right! Humans are rather late on the evolutionary scale. LOL. But we were talking about the garden and what has gotten into me lately.
Gypsy: Yes, please tell me more about your need to plant now.
Paul: What I’m doing is clearing away some of the mulch I placed on the garden in the fall when I put the beds to sleep. Then I pull up the top soil all around where the mound with go. This soil is looser and drier, and makes a nice little mound. The deeper soil is still wet and cold from all the rain we have had lately. This mound allows the soil to drain better and warm up quicker from the sun and air than if I had planted the seeds deeper in the ground.
Gypsy: So the seeds will come to life?
Paul: Seeds are alive already, but they are in a state of rest one might say and giving them the ideal conditions will help them wake up.
Gypsy: I do the same thing when the sun comes up in the morning! My hearing tells me it is morning when I hear birds singing, and when I open my eyes just a little, the morning light tells me the night has passed and it is time to get up and begin the day. I like to sit by the window and look out at the creek running by, look at the trees and birds flitting about. They get very excited when they see me in the window and tell all their friends.
Paul: Waking up is something we all do everyday. It is just a little different for seeds that spend most of the winter or longer in hibernation. They have found seeds that are a thousand years old that will still germinate. I think that is a miracle of life.
Gypsy: Life itself is a miracle! We need to take every day to marvel at the mystery that is life!
Paul: And if we did that we would be much more careful to value and protect that life. We are often in too big a hurry to get somewhere or get something.
Gypsy: I see that you give your garden the same care as you do when you give me a massage!
Paul: This is my pleasure.
Gypsy: I also admire your attention and care you give in growing food, even though I don’t need plants to live.
Paul: But the animals you eat, need green plants to live on. Plants have the amazing ability to capture the sun’s energy and use this energy to capture carbon from the air along with nutrients from the ground to produce proteins and carbohydrates that animals grow on. Animals are healthier if they eat green plant life rather than just grains.
Gypsy: Please tell me more about what gets you up in the morning and out the garden.
Paul: The changing season stirs my blood and I begin feeling an urgency to be in the garden and release the seeds from their little packets into the soil where they can grow.
Gypsy: How do you know when to do this?
Paul: I pay attention to the changing seasons and I get my hands in the soil to see how the temperature feels. The longer days and warmer nights also let me know that the time has come. I can feel this in my bones. The sun on my body is doing the same thing. It is relaxing me and letting me open up and move about. All winter I have been withdrawn into myself just to keep warm. This may be one of the reasons we haven’t communicated as much.
Gypsy: I’m glad that you feel the need to help life grow.
Paul: And this is the first year I am trying to start seeds by making mounds of dirt just like this. Already some of the seeds have come up!
Gypsy: I see that you have learned something from me and didn’t realize it.
Paul: Yes, you are right! I wasn’t aware that I was learning this from you. It just seemed to come to me to do this.
Gypsy: When we are open to the world, all things are possible. It is the same thing as communicating through the heart. It happens without any effort on our part.
Paul: Do you mean that all things are possible when our hearts are open to the goodness of the universe?
Gypsy: Those are good words to describe what takes place. The experience of this goes beyond words and manifests itself in new awareness. We open ourselves to something that is much bigger than ourselves; a vastness of being and intention.
Paul: Now you are losing me in all those words. I guess what I have always thought is that when you do good, good returns to you. I can apply this to growing a garden. When I take care of the soil, the soil and all the life within it returns the favor to me in the form of healthy food. It always seems like it get more back that what I give. Maybe because the act of giving or working in the garden is rewarding in itself. And I’m always learning new things.
Gypsy: Learning doesn’t have to take place under strict rules or conditions. As a matter of fact, one can learn by doing absolutely nothing other than taking note of the world around us. I think this is the basis of what you call science which is just observing life processes.
Paul: Yes, you are right. What I do understand is that something or some things tell me when it is time to begin to start the garden. And that I am learning directly through my experiences. It is not something I can gain from a book, although books can communicate ideas. Perhaps it is the same thing that tells birds to fly south in the spring. Somehow they just know when it is the right time. But it may take a few flights around to get everyone together and on the same page and ready for the flight.
Gypsy: The Universe if full of knowledge if we can just tap into that which is why I spend time just sitting and meditating.
Paul: We can also learn from books and words where other people share their own experiences and consciousness.
Gypsy: You are correct, but real knowledge comes from direct experience either active or passive.
Paul: I agree. For me I have to get my hands in the earth. I need to be on all fours, so to speak.
Gypsy: Cats are always on all fours which is why we have such a strong connection with the earth. We don’t wear shoes or ride in cars.
Paul: I notice you don’t mind lying on the bed or snuggled in the closet.
Gypsy: Cats enjoy creature comforts too. And it is also a way of conserving energy. We are very energy conscious. Cats will find a warm spot inside or out, always seeking peace and contentment.
Paul: We humans seem to be losing our connection with the natural world, isolating ourselves in artificial environments or very often in a virtual world completely separate from reality.
Gypsy: Even in the city there is life burgeoning; one just has to look. A flower is growing from the crack in a sidewalk, trees are blooming and bees buzzing. Life is everywhere despite man’s attempt to push it away.
Paul: You are right. We just need to be open to the life around us!
Gypsy: That is why I practice meditation, mindfulness and most importantly patience.
Paul: Doesn’t patience imply the passage of time?
Gypsy: Patience is the characteristic of simply being present in the moment to see what will unfold. The only time we have is this very precious moment that we have now.
Paul: As usual, you have just the right thing to say to end our conversation! I’ll be thinking of you.
Gypsy: And I will be doing the same! I look forward to your arrival back home.
Paul: Me too!