Hummingbird lesson (NGT)

September 2006
Carmel, California

While staying at a friend’s house, enjoying her lovely garden, surrounded by green everywhere and watching the many hummingbirds who frequent the space, I stopped to watch one hummingbird who was sitting on a low branch in a small tree. He must have sat there for at least five to ten minutes. Not only was I surprised to see it resting for such a long time, as I thought hummingbirds were always busy feeding due to their very high metabolism, but it was singing up a storm, and I didn’t realize hummingbirds could make so much noise!

After about five minutes of this adorable little bird chirping away at an almost constant pace, I figured I’d just listen, as if maybe it was ‘talking to me’. I have learned to listen more and think less while in nature. The story I heard in my thoughts was that when you have been through intense periods of learning and growth in your life, in a sense feeding lots of new information to your mind, you need to take time to digest it, allowing your whole being, body, mind and spirit, to integrate it into your Being and your life. This made perfect sense to me as I had just finished five months of traveling to many natural places, getting tons of stories and information and writing about all that I’d learned. It was no wonder that I was so tired all of a sudden and just felt like resting.

After about five minutes of me ‘listening’ to the hummingbird, it finally went to visit a couple more flowers and then flew up to the top of a larger tree, one in which it could see a much higher and wider view of the entire garden. This was almost as if to show me that when you allow yourself to take the time to rest and integrate what you‘ve learned, only then can you get a better, clearer perspective of what lies ahead and where your path might lead you next.

Twisted oaks and shadows of illusion (NGT)

From April 19, 2006
Garland Ranch Park, Carmel Valley, California

Thick, rough, curved and entwined oak trees, even with Spanish moss hanging on them. What chance does the sun’s rays have to penetrate this forest, of shadows? Still, the fresh, new grass and flowers growing ever so easily beneath spread out with joy in the springtime breeze. The softness of the scene does offer its peace. As the sun shifts, so do the shadows, reminding me that the sun always shines and is omnipotent, whereas the shadows are always changing, inch by inch, minute by minute, and so not to take them too seriously, nor contemplate their depth of character. We are neither the light nor the shadows, but life itself.

We all have our mental shadows of which we have become accustomed to thinking of them as who and what we are. They tend to shift only slightly year after year, but even in our attaching ourselves to them, we have shifted as they have, moving as the sun moves them. It is just that we have not allowed ourselves to see the sunlight which creates the illusion that they are there in the first place. There are many experiences in our lives that can, if we allow them to, help us to not only see the shadows for what they are (temporary thought structures), but show us a glimpse of the possibility at being able to see the sunlight and to perhaps dwell in that space instead. If we are having a ‘rough’ day or week or even year, we usually figure out that at some point things will get better. We almost expect it. But if we continue to dwell in the ‘roughness’ of the day or week or year, identifying the roughness of our life as who and what we are, it becomes difficult to see the shadow of that thought as a shadow or to even see the fresh, new grass and flowers of blooming possibility underneath it all. Thus it becomes challenging to see our true selves, the truth of our beautiful shining spirit and being aware of that, live in alignment with it.

The Light of Infinite Love lives within our hearts.
The Light of Infinite Peace lives within our every step.
The Light of Infinite Joy lives within our Being.

Nature-guided Therapy

From my visit to Sedona, AZ November 2004

Native Americans believe that everything in nature has a spirit, an essence that lives in it. If we look up the word “Nature” in the dictionary, it literally means essence. If you look up “Spirit” in the dictionary, it literally means, ‘the essence or nature of something’.

I think of this as I sit near the mouth of Boynton Canyon in Sedona, Arizona and admire the rain and wind-sculpted red cliffs that surround me. One looks sort of like and old Irishman with derby cap and all. Another resembles a large cave-like hand high above as if reaching out to grasp something. At some point I realize that the cliffs are showing me not what the weather has sculpted but the actual essence within them. I wonder if the spirit within the mountains are simply showing who they are. (There is even one in Sedona that looks like ‘Snoopy’ laying on his back.)

This is their story:
“The rain drop does not choose which way it will run down the wall of the mountain, sculpting it over time. Rather it is the essence of the mountain itself that determines which way it will allow the rain drop to fall and shape it. The weather of your life (your life experiences) does not determine or create who you are. It is the core of your Being that decides not only which way experiences sculpt it, but also which experiences it chooses to use to do the sculpting.”

It is like the painter choosing which colors to put on his canvas based on what image he wants to create. If you have ever noticed with paintings, each artist’s work has a distinct feel or concept which comes through. We can say, oh that must be so and so’s painting because it looks like their work. We become familiar with the expression on the canvas and identify it with the artist’s expression of who they are. The painter is not the canvas nor the image. The painter, like the spirits of nature, is the essence or core that paints and sculpts to express what it is.

We can also view the interaction between the rain drop and the mountain, both as spirits, essences. The interplay expresses both while at the same time effecting both, changing both. Sort of a dance of essence with essence, spirit with spirit. But even in this, the true Being of each determines the interplay. Like dance partners, we choose which one we want to dance with in order to learn different steps and thus experience ourselves and our lives in different ways.

Welcome to the Peaceful Inspirations Blog

Welcome to the Peaceful Inspirations Blog.

My intention for this sharing of light and love is to help others remember their true light. As the owner of Peaceful Inspirations, it is my goal to help awaken the Light of Infinite peace, joy and love within all. As Infinite Spirit having a 'human experience', seeking to creatively express our light and creative genius and experience ourselves as that, we can choose our reality in each moment. This took a very long time for me to learn, but I am ever so thankful to all of the great spirits living today and past that have truly inspired so many to shine in their true magnificence. This is what we are all 'here' to do.

My normal canvas for helping others awaken is through nature. Specifically through Nature-guided Therapy, expressed in writing, singing, counseling and Being.

"If you want to know what True Infinite Love is and what it feels like, go to nature. Nature is an expression of true, pure Infinite Love. True Love, Pure Infinite Love, surrounds you, supports you, mirrors all of your beauty, allows to you grow, and engulfs you in unending peace and inspiration."
~ from "The Love of Nature and the Nature of Love" by Elaine Bolduc
(to be published 2007-2008)

Peace,
Elaine

www.peacefulinspirations.org