I have a little book which I open up each morning – well, 3 actually! One is Thich Nhat Hanh’s, How To Love.
I close my eyes, flick my thumb across the pages (my version fo a shuffle) and then see where it falls open.
I go through phases where I find myself staring at the same passage and this morning’s is one of those. It’s titled, No Self.
I had the initial feeling of ‘again’ and ‘I know this one’. Then I noticed a line in it,
A flower cannot be by herself. A flower can only inter-be with all of us.
Given the season we’re in, it got me thinking of the big flowers: trees.
At the weekend we visited Marks Hall. It’s one of our local go-to places for autumn colour.🍁
The inner part of the estate is an arboretum, containing many different varieties of trees. It’s like a tree gallery, with specimens we might not otherwise get to see, and planted to showcase each other’s wonderful diversity of size, shape and colour.
This was our first time visiting with our puppy. Turns out they have a no dogs policy at weekends….so we took a new path which runs around the outside of it.
It was a discovery for us. There lies the older, more traditional planting of the estate, including ancient oak trees. It felt like being among the safe keepers of the inner treasures.
Reading Tich Nhat Nanh this morning I’m thinking of how all these trees inter-be.
It would be highly unusual to find a garden with one flower all on it’s own or a landscape with one solitary tree.
Beech trees come to mind as a little different in this regard: not much grows below a beech tree because of its dense canopy. But even beech trees love to grow together. I think of the mountainsides covered in them I have walked through in northern Spain.
They need each other.
Today is the start of a national lockdown here in the UK
May we be like trees and find ways to honour our innate interconnectedness.
Our kids are still at school so have a space set up to inter-be with others.
We ‘big kids’ need to get creative!
We can go for a walk with one other person. I have a 3 month old puppy who needs exercise and socialisation. I’ve made a list of friends with dogs and am suggesting meet ups for a walk over the days and weeks ahead. A chance for me and puppy to connect with our others.
May you find ways to honour your need for others because together we are stronger…plus life simply is more beautiful with others.🤗
Let’s flourish together!
Love, Arlene x
Ps. I’ll be hosting an online coaching series for 6 weeks starting next week. It’s about loving yourself first so that you can strengthen your resilience and show up for what matters regardless of life’s storms. It will be on Tuesday mornings 10-12. Message me for details arlene@arlenefl.com. xx
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