Jennifer Posada

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

I leapt out of the grocery store the other night right before it closed, and without even realizing it I found myself in a moment full of the senses…the parking lot brought sudden silence and instantly the smell of rain on warm pavement rose up from the streets for the first time this year. Breathing it in deeply as I stood in my tracks, I was again surprised, by the sweetest, warmest, lightest scent of flowers, just for a moment. It was so subtle and profound.

I could have turned and hopped into my car and continued my fast pace home, but instead I walked around the whole parking lot looking for the source of that wonderful smell. This is what it means to stop and smell the flowers. What it really means is to catch ourselves in those little moments where we can draw the nectar from life, and do it. We could live like butterflies, or bees…just looking for the bright spots around us and then drinking them in.

This is not the same as draining something of life force…this is enjoying something deeply, which actually gives to it and strengthens it. Like the bee pollinates the flower. So often we watch the sweet things drift by in our lives like a train that doesn’t seem to stop where we are, or as if we are watching it all through glass. We don’t drink it in. We are too busy taking care of less joyful details, and we have been told that this is what life is about.

What is sweet in your life, in your day, that you could drink in more deeply? Is it spring flowers opening? Is it a relationship, a favorite new tea, a class you enjoy…a good conversation? A complement, a knowing look, a beautiful painting? Writing a poem, a great movie, a baby’s face? A new idea, an ancient memory, an exciting potential?

My beings once told me that it was okay to pan the gold from any situation…that there is always some gold somewhere within all of them, even if sometimes it is just a little…then take just that. They said I didn’t have to fill my pockets with stones to feel alright about taking the gold with me. The gold that you can find in a situation is only for you…whomever else is involved has their own gold and their own choices to make about it.

Check your pockets. Only keep what makes you happy. Pan for gold, drink the nectar, seek out the sweetness and let it be yours.