Roadside Chats (2) 20/1/15

Roadside Chats (2) 20/1/15

I drive west for a post-Convergence shared meal at Coopers Creek near Oxford. The meal is at Robert Totty’s farm. It’s a relaxed evening. I meet new and interesting people.

After the shared meal the ‘convergee’s’ slowly drift off home. I decide to park up in the apple orchard for a couple more nights. Five others stay on. Over the next days the ‘spirit of Convergence’ lingers as we share. Conversations are intimate and open. There’s a generosity in our companionship. Healing takes place within the easy flow of relationships.

In the bubble of Coopers Creek

I open my

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This paper flame

‘This paper flame’ is a ‘saying’ given by the Self… it comes from the world of true Imagination… it speaks to me of the brevity of life… of the fragile way of the heart… we burn ever so briefly… if we burn at all…

When I return to Christchurch there’s bad news. An old friend emails. He’s struggling with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He tells me even if the chemo works he will not make 70.

At Barrington Mall, an ex-counselling client approaches. ‘F’, was once a drug addict. I feel her pride and excitement as she tells me of her new 24 hours a week paid job. She now supports drug addicts through their own rehabilitation. I feel happy. I reach out and congratulate her. ‘F’ bubbles away as she reminds me that getting a job supporting addicts was one of her goals when she first came to see me. She tells me I’ve played a major part in helping her achieve her goal. I wonder how. It’s years since we worked together.  ‘It’s the connection’ she says, as she re-enters the checkout queue. There’s that word again.

The next evening I read David Rosen’s postscript to his book, The Healing Power of Haiku; Joel we’ve clearly been on a journey to the Soul and our souls have touched one another. Our healing stories are very personal yet universal. My hunch is that what we’ve written will stir others and they’ll reach out in unplanned ways and begin unplanned pilgrimages into Nature in the spirit of Eros. 1)

I know at least one reader who finds himself on such an unexpected journey. Here I am on my own ‘unplanned pilgrimage into Nature in the spirit of Eros.’ I journey toward the Soul. I journey within the Soul.

‘Eros’ is the fire of green connection. It’s the fire of opening. It’s the fire of intimacy. It’s the fire of honesty. It’s the fire of ‘seeing.’ It’s the fire of ‘knowing.’ Eros is a face of Love.

Tomorrow I begin my journey to Nelson. I sit in my daughter’s kitchen telling the Grandchildren I will be leaving in the morning. I tell them I plan to return to ChCh in a few weeks to visit. Six-year-old Charlie speaks up; ‘I will miss you, granddad.’ I feel the green fire of Eros in his words. We will both miss our sprightly masculine connection. It’s a green moment; a natural moment; a moment of pure relationship.

I will miss you, granddad
~
My six-year-old grandson

Looks me

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The

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Green Eloquence

I respond with my own green speech. ‘I will miss you too Charlie. Do you know why I will miss you?’ ‘No Granddad.’ ‘It’s because I love you, Charlie.’

‘Connection’ springs from the fragile and frequently threatened ground of our humanness. Connection springs from the world of the soul. When we ‘connect’ we learn to ‘see’ from the heart. The ego works against ‘seeing.’ Cultural conditioning works against seeing. Judgments work against seeing. Fear works against seeing. ‘Seeing’ opens us to ourselves, others, and the world about us. Amid the multiple distractions and disintegrations of our modern world; such ‘sight’ is precious. It must be cultivated over and over again.

Unless the soul goes out to meet what we see; we do not see it; nothing do we see; not a beetle; not a blade of grass. 2)

• The Healing Spirit of Haiku; David Rosen and Joel Weishaus, illustrations Arthur Okamura, Pg 159.
• Ibid … also see: http://web.tiscali.co.uk/toddington.poetry/quotes.htm.

 Roadside Blessings – Kevin