I love this tree. It looks like it is dancing. It looks like it has played with the sun and has grown accordingly. This tree has grown naturally and in great beauty as it was created to grow and that is why I love this tree. I love trees because of the individual growth patterns of each tree. They are not symmetrical in any sense in that is the power of their beauty. I think we are like trees in that when we grow according to how we were created to grow and when we grow naturally, and in truth, we are the most beautiful and perfect.

Transition, birthing. How does one bring a new "thing" into reality? Dose the effort exerted have anything to do with that which is becoming? Do we remember the things more and clearer that took great effort or pain? I think the thing that takes effort or sometimes just pain, lives on in our being long after the event. These things take on significance in our lives. I am not saying that these things are arbitrary or random. Mostly, I think we create and or draw things into our lives. I personally find it hard to imagine my life without these significant events, any of them. I can sometimes feel the changing tide of change that can happen in an instant, but leaves long lasting effects, and often tragic effects, effects that can not be put back to the before event. I think of the image a school child drew of The Towers Falling in NY, and he's looking up at the towers, a plane is flying and the boy is saying, "Stop!". It can't stop. Some events can't stop, and the after effects are lasting change. Now, sometimes these changes are sweet and beautiful. The birth of your own child is like this so much. In the transition from pregnant into birth is often filled with all kinds of events that are not pleasant, but once you hold the new person in your arms it is all worth it, and a new life has entered into your own. In the garden, my father, and grandmother both taught me that sometimes it is better for the plant to not flower because of the energy given in the process can be too much for the plant, and so it is better to remove the bud to allow the plant to grow until it can fully take on that kind of effort to produce a flower, and then maybe a fruit. Maybe sometimes transitions do not happen until we are ready to take on the new life that is to come after the event. Maybe sometimes we can allow them to happen when we are ready, but not always. Last night I was musing on how we have lost our fear, or concern over child birth. Not so long ago, childbirth was a chancy thing. You did not always come out alive. I know I would not be writing this if it were not for modern medicine. I think a lot of us do not even consider these small births that happen all the time in our lives, and I think we have lost the wonder and gift of the other side. New life happens around us everyday. Celebrate the creative power of the changes, the life altering changes that lead to newness of life. The road is not easy that we follow, but often it is interesting.