The Nature of Love

My magnificent trip to Ireland was a profound experience for me on many levels.  I am quite sure this trip will  become a topic of sorts on more than just a few occasions, if only to illustrate the amazing growth that it inspired.  I would be remiss if I did not speak of the experience that lead me to the awareness of the incredible power that lies within.  That power I speak of, is love.   Make no mistake, it is a power.  One that is far greater than most of us dare to imagine. However often it is written about in poems or heard throughout a romantic lyric, or even spoken as the word of our religious texts, can we truly comprehend the magnitude of what  inspired those words?
Let me begin by going back around twenty years. It was 1995, I was quite young, in my early twenties. I was just starting out in life as a young adult. Having just moved into my new home, I was eager to start gardening. I knew very little about plants, but what I did know, was what I liked and what I didn't like!  There, standing in my front yard was a bush that I did not like.  I had no idea what type of plant it was, I only knew that having it there was bothering me. It just didn't fit into my fixed parameters of aesthetic beauty. I decided I would dig it up.  As much as I didn't like this plant, I couldn't bring myself to just  let it die. So I replanted it as far back as I could, in my backyard...in an ivy patch.
There it sat.  For over twenty years, this plant sat.  It did not die, it did not grow, it just sat.  Not a single bloom, ever. Over those last few years, my life was going through a very difficult stage, the demise of my marriage.  It was a rough time, and my mind was in shut down mode. For years I was just going though the motions, sleep walking, although I had no awareness of my sleep. Needless to say, I had forgotten about this plant.  Out of sight, out of mind. But that was about to change.  My mind was on the cusp of a new frontier, a true awakening.
This is where my trip to Ireland comes in.  I was staying at a charming little hotel on Caragh Lake. My mom and I were one of two sets of guests who were staying there that weekend.   It was over breakfast, where I had the pleasure of meeting the other two ladies, also from the states. As fate would have had it, (because there are no coincidences), I met Gladys.  The two of us shared a like minded view of the world and the power of the mind; the law of attraction!!  She told me about a book entitled, "What the Bleep do we Know?"  I have no doubt, that my meeting with Gladys was an important connection.  She was a messenger!  The book she shared with me, changed my life.  I was so ready to hear what it had to say!!  I must admit, I  absolutely love when, "you are asking" and the universe "is answering".  In my heart I was asking for more answers to the questions that were deep within me and as I became more aware, more in tune with my higher self, I was able to see when the flow of responses would arrive!!!
I learned so much from this amazing book, but the part I want to share with you is what I learned from Masaru Emoto and his experiments with water.  Mr. Emoto exposes the water to different messages.  Some water received messages of love, while other samples were given the opposite.  The water that was the recipient of loving and kind words apparently formed beautiful crystals when frozen and observed under a microscope, not so for the water that received the unloving messages.  I was deeply moved and effected by Mr. Emoto's studies.  I am quite sure that there are many who will doubt what his evidence has shown. But there will always be those who see things differently.  We have to follow our own truth.
 His words resonated with such truth for me, that it created a new awareness, or rather I now felt a connection to a deeper truth that was always within me.  This was what drew my attention back to my plant, the one that I had forgotten about so long ago.  I was suddenly very much aware of what my thoughts had done.  All I kept thinking about was the unloving way in which I viewed this plant.  How I was so unable to see it's beauty. With this new perception and a sense of great remorse I stood before my "rhododendron" bush and offered it great love.  I saw it's beauty for the first time.  I felt like I had been taught an incredible lesson. A lesson on  how we choose to see things.  I realized that just because I was unable to see the beauty of this plant, that didn't mean it never existed.  It was always there, whether I could see it or not.  Amazingly now, I did see it as beautiful.  I had changed, and so the way I saw things had changed as well.
What followed in the days to come, was nothing short of miraculous.  I don't remember exactly how much time went by, but it wasn't long before that rhododendron began to grow, and it wasn't just growing, it was flourishing!!!!  It bloomed for the first time in over twenty years!!!!!!!  A multitude of lavender blossoms, an incredible sight to behold.

 I have continued to show love to my beautiful rhododendron bush and not for any other reason other than, I truly love this plant and I have such gratitude for it's presence and all that I have learned.  I feel as though "she" was my teacher and I was the student.  In has been six years and "Rhoda", as I like to call her, has grown to over three times her size.  Amazing what the power of love can do.
Even as we approach the month of December, there is always a blossom that she shares with me.