It’s such a pleasure to dive back into my work, the editing of the illustrated novel i’m writing.  how blessed am i to have such a great writing partner, also? I mean my friend, fellow artist and writer Kathryn, who has just returned the book, in its entirety, with her markings and suggestions.  Indeed it is a gift to have a good friend, especially one with whom i can share so much.  Friendship is a precious thing.  They say if we end up having just one or two good friends in our entire lives, we have lived well.  Let this post be my homage to friendship, and how it supports the connection to life we all need, and desire.

we 2 are 1

whether spouse or friend, to have another to share one’s soul with, to share the deepest insights we learn, to climb the highest mountain and cross the widest desert–metaphorically speaking, i mean–is something i cherish immensely.

time was, i didn’t. time was, i was interested in just me me me. But that kind of thinking always ended up bringing me nothing but lonely feelings and deep longing. I have learned to see all people as interconnected. How? By meditation and other yogic disciplines, for my case. You may find that connection other ways, through many of countless other paths. When i make a “special connection” with just ONE, as I have with Carter, my consort, and Kathryn, my writing partner, and other dear friends, new and old that have come into my life — this is the sweet spice of being alive! Feeling a part of the whole. Ahhhhh, yes, it’s true: other people are the way we can connect to our Higher Power, instead of just isolating ourselves in our little caves.

Reach out and touch someone today. Share a laugh, share a story, share a part of yourself. You won’t regret it.

Beeman Pollination Blues

While riding our bikes through Guana Park here in St. Augustine this past Sunday, with our son Cully, home from U. F. where he studies wildlife biology, I saw some wild passionfruit vines. Got off my bike and looked deeply into the blossom, the same sensuous, miraculously complex blossom you see in the painting above. Immediately I realized how things of Nature can also be our friends, our deep, trusted, sacred Friends, and Teachers, as well as other humans are who fill those roles. And the beauty of that divine bloom reminded me of this painting, which says so much to me. How the “man” is a hairy flying “bee” and the “woman” has a passionfruit flower for her gorgeous, sensuous “head. ” I was reminded how we can relate just as easily to everything of Nature as we can to others of our own human tribe.

So here’s an idea: Go take a little walk today, even in your backyard, your neighborhood, and look closely, carefully, microscopically if you have to, at all your friends, right there—in Nature! You may have to stop a moment, get on your knees maybe, and most definitely clear your mind (leave your cellphone behind!) and listen extra carefully. Do you hear them? Can you see them? We’re surrounded by dear-hearts singing and calling out to us all the time. Birds. Animals. Insects. Even the rivers and lakes. They want to know US as well as we, who take time, want to know THEM.

You never know where you’ll find another friend. Take a moment, and look around you. Pay attention. Be patient. Then . . . . smile when you discover the magic of the unseen world always there—waiting to be discovered by you!

in the Light, lordflea

two friends, nicaraguanas