It's a while since I posted, but most weeks I have been managing my retreat mornings (well, quite a few anyway!). It's just that I haven't done so well with reflecting on them on the blog. But - as when any practice gets ragged - what is there to do, but begin again?
Here an image from earlier in the season - when I spent time in the Aranda bushland during Lent.
Today, though, it was the Botanic Gardens that called. On arrival, as usual, the space stilled me and filled me with gratitude for the time and the beauty of things. The banksias are flowering and magnificent.
The colours are almost impossible to believe, as is the intricacy and delicacy of each flower.
I was struck too by the clarity of the light across the woodlands. Light and shadow were in sharp relief, and the dew sparkled on the leaves.
I thought a bit about the relationship between shadow and light - both part of things, helping define each other. Seeing it in a landscape is one thing, of course. Embracing the shadow with equanimity in our lives and the lives of those we care about is something else again.
But touching, immersed in mystery, I sat and prayed and was renewed.
Shalom,
Sarah
Ooooh!!! How I love the one of the bird sipping nectar from the Banksia. She looks so much at home and she is enjoying the delicacy of what the flower is offering her. May we each continue in our own simple daily ways learn to 'sip' at the nectar of life that being in nature offers us as we make our way from place to place remembering also that our own space often offers us such moments of delight. Thanks Sarah for that delightful picture and you reflection.
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