Wilderness : Southern Cape : TEN : Life is just beginning

WILDERNESS : LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING : EPISODE 10 : CYCLE COMPLETE : THE MEANING OF TEN.

I gathered and priced all my craft goodies nice and early to join the Wilderness Talent Market at noon on a gloriously sunny spring day. I wondered into whose home my recently completed Peace Chain would go. I lovingly stitched Shanti, Salaam, Peace in small chain stitches on every third squared patch of material, with an Om Shanti prayer. It needed a nice cosy room. The awesomely spectacular views between Knysna and Wilderness never fail to make any downcast soul smile. A downcast soul this time around was my sulking teenager who had to do Math during the Spring holiday break. Tough love. Math is to be done. The forests of tall staggering pines on both sides of the road, the sea breezes blowing in, the limitless blue sky, sparkling rippling waters, the vastness of Mother Nature….she could not but be affected by this wave of Unconditional Love embracing us as the battered car upped the turns and bends.

WILDERNESS … The word itself conjures up images of man/woman unrestrained, in his-her natural state, delighting in the wild, questing, seeking, exploring, unconfined – This is the area where the TALENT market was to be held, on top of Wilderness Heights, up a curvy, untarred, bumpity-bump road, to Asante Farm. The entrance mosaic to the farm fills one with a sense of peace, of arrival and belonging. It seemed complete, yet incomplete, a riddle that need not be answered. Stall owners were setting up or putting down colourful blankets, hanging up dream-catchers and T-shirts, setting up gas stoves, putting on kettles. Landi, owner of the farm was there in her farmer’s wife spring outfit, complete with girdle and talent sheets, with warm fat arms and a smile to die for. Competent Mother Nature incarnate, all giving, if ever there was one.

If this was not Heaven, then what was ? Life is just beginning. In the far corner, the kiddies had a bonfire going and were testing their skill at burning twigs to just before it came half-way. I was puzzled at how these kiddies played unsupervised, yet in total control of their game. FIRE was going strongly, toddlers toddled around in bright outfits, barefoot. No fear was evident. In the deep recesses of my mind, the phrase came to the fore – “Fear not, when I am near”, and “There is nothing to fear. “ I remembered to underline these phrases.

I hung up my Peace Chain with the TEN squares, set out the beaded hearts, heart-decorated tablemats, then sauntered to check out goodies at neighboring stalls. I encouraged my teen to have an open air massage, which, to her detriment, she decided against, opting instead for hand reflexology.

Suni did my massage, niggling tight spots along my spine, unwinding the 72 000 nerves up the back, wrinkling out folded lower back muscles, then up to glands behind the ears and points all around the skull. Slowly I released old traumas that had come to the fore, to sounds of Hannelie Khoury’s folk tunes and guitar.

The smell of falafel drifted past, the cock crowed in broad sunlight, the horse neighed, the dogs barked. Where was I ? A hound being fed falafel, a horse nudging the fence eyeing my TEN point Peace Chain. Did she want it as a necklace ? Suni kept urging me to BREATHE. Breathe. “I am opening up your chest “, she urged. I breathed. All was well. Life is just beginning.

Then back to vertical position and a haziness. Ofcourse, this was the material realm and food seemed necessary. The best pizza in the Wilderness, prepared with utmost love in an oven surrounded by beautiful maidens and a pizza-maker who was dishing veggies surrounded by crystals, books, comfy couches, an ambience of relaxed naturalness. The feta melted, yet firm, the tomatoes fresh and blood red, the spinach tasty, the olives spluttering juice which dribbled down our chins. Just the right amount of cheese. Life was just beginning.

Then there was this stall owner, Mark, from Mark’s Delights, who was selling decadent raw cacao cake slices. Its base contained cashew nut and date pressed together with coconut oil, a melt in the mouth delight, which touched no heat at all. Rawlicious to perfection. He handled the cakes as if they were Olympic trophies, which they were !! It was not long before all his cake was SOLD OUT, so was the divine cashew nut cheese.

My Peace Chain happily smiled at all the buyers who oohed and aahed. One buyer, with a smile and eyes matching the Shanti stitches and beyond, so gentle was her aura, and so respectfully did she present her talents and curled up rands, that I could not be more delighted for the exchange. This buyer lived in my previous hometown, Muizenberg of the endless white sand and expansive beach ! She lived in the same street in which I lived a decade ago ! Lo and behold … A circle of TEN years. Ten - the number of completion. Ten – the number of perfection. Ten – the number of maximum achievement. There were ten squares on that Peace Chain. Ten, a spiritual cycle complete, preparation for the next venture, for greater work. Ten – the death of the little ego and a re-birth. Ten, a high emotional stability number.

My buyer said she will treasure the Chain and I, will treasure the smile in her eyes. Life is just beginning. ===============================================================

FASTING : Life is just Beginning: Episode 9

FASTING : Life is just beginning :  Episode 9

One way in which the Divine keeps me wedded to Him-Her as a devotee is by controlling my inflow. As I live at the edge, day by day, moment by moment, as no clients appear in my space, I do not eat. So, I fast. He-She-The-All- Knowing-Opulent- Divine Creator Master-Mistress-of-Everything lets me fast for several days on end. Then a glass of water becomes a holy spring of Divine Love. In it I see Life as just Beginning. HoHoHO !  H2O floats in a glass holding me together while I sit and watch a myriad birds, doing my holy mantras, focusing on Sun, enjoying its reflection on the still blue Knysna lagoon.

On such days, birds visit the back garden of the flat who have never visited before. Their feathers sparkle in rainbow colours in the light while blossomed trees around whisper bliss and ecstasy. I watch them building their nests, flying to and fro with bits of grass and tiny sticks, held firmly aloft. They do this to-ing and fro-ing the whole day long, one tiny mossie, not tiring. I’m awestruck at the magnificence of such endurance. No stopping to look for food, no nibbling between, just this backward and forward flying to this one half-built nest in a thickly branched acacia. There is an urgency, an urgency without haste, a knowledge that all can be done on time.

How unlike the human race who push and pull, manipulate to get things done at specific times, setting demanding deadlines which kill the joy of work. Then I turn inward. My skin becomes baby soft while fasting, my hair falls out, but what the heck, it is graying in any case and Life is just beginning !! My nails grow very fast during fasting sprees. Strange. I don’t know the reason for this ? Then there is all this time to do craft work and stitch interesting patterns and designs straight from the heart. Work becomes Joy. I fully comprehend Khalil Gibran who says “ When you work, you are a flute through which the whispering hours turn to music.”

In the Bible, David fasted for his child’s life, Ezra fasted on his return to Jerusalem, the Israelites fasted when confessing sins. Jews fasted when Haman wanted to destroy them, Queen Ester asked them to fast so that she could help them, they fasted in repentance during drought and called for holy fasts at times of need. In Zechariah the Creator asks whether fasting was really done for him and that fasting is to be joyful occasions. Do we touch joy when we fast ? Without a fast touching Joy, it has little meaning as we do not draw nearer the Divine – which is His-Her purpose with this spiritual tool.  

When Jesus was questioned about fasting, he gave the answer that when he is taken, his disciples will fast. I understand this to mean, when the Light leaves, fasting is necessary for a return to Light, as a purification tool : to shrink the cloth and make new wineskins so that new wine can be poured into new skins. Have you noticed how quickly the body renews itself when fasting ? Annah, the Prophetess fasted for many days before speaking about the role of Jesus. In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, it is clear that fasting needs to be part of a process of humbling before God. Fasting is known to clear the mind and give the ability to speak the Truth as it comes from Divinity through a voice.  Jesus fasted before his Temptation. It obviously strengthened his resolve, faith and inner self. Saul fasted before he set off for Cyprus where his work was made lighter. Fasting as a preparation for the spreading of the Gospel seems to have been a regular practice. 

Fasting is to happen on the Day of Atonement, to please God. In Mathew, we understand that fasting is only for God. Muslims are very clear about this as a crucial tenet of Islam. Fasting is a pact between God, the Ultimate and the individual. The Holy Quran states that fasting is decreed during the month of Ramadaan to become righteous, except when ill or on a journey or menstruating. The Quran states that God wants fasting to be made easy - an understanding is that we fast for the glorification of the Creator, to increase our gratitude for His gifts and to make our path homeward clearer.

In a “Course in Miracles”, a more contemporary spiritual text, miracles are possible for anybody, if purification happens. Implicit is the need to fast, for purification of body, mind and strengthening of soul. The Bhagavad Gita speaks about a consciousness which relates to food and a consciousness which relates to bliss, the two on opposite ends of a scale of evolution.

How one understands food and relates to it, is obviously an important aspect of the development of consciousness. The more dense and toxic the food we eat, the more dense and toxic the body and mind. The lighter, fresher, more alive the food, the lighter, fresher, more alive the body and mind. Pure logic : We are what we eat. So refraining from food, it is just the breath we inhale which feeds us. If the air we breathe is as pure as we can find, and the thoughts we inhale with the breathe are pure, as we filter out that whose gravitational pull is low, Viola ! we raise our consciousness slowly, but surely –if refraining from food becomes a regular practice or we are Divinely controlled when fasting becomes a natural part of our cycle of being alive.

So Sweet Ones, what about foregoing those slap chips. Hard hey. But it can be done. Use the Will. Use the Will, Use the Will, Use the Will.. 

ARUM LILIES IN KNYSNA : (Life is just beginning series : Episode 8)

LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING EPISODE 8 : ARUM LILIES IN KNYSNA

It is challenging to describe the Arum Lily. The closest I come to finding an exact description is magnetically PURE. It draws one – into its wildness. A single snowy white receptacle, on a single straight stem with a strong yellow heavily powdered pistil growing in a field surrounded by weeds somehow gives one a sense that all of life is pure, that life is magnetic – that its ebbs, flows, dips, raises is inherent to its intrinsic beauty.Endlessly changing, yet changeless.

Then there are those Arums growing in groups out of dungheaps, peeping magnetically through tall forest trees. “Come to us. See how we live and fade away only to be reborn next spring. Here are fairies resting against the base of our stems. They drink dew drops from our elephant leaves. We challenge you to be wild and free….”

In Knysna,  Arums pop up everywhere this time of year – along busy roads, next to ponds, at the edge of manicured gardens, along cultivate fields of herbs, in big strong hands of  hungry flower –pickers who tread the back paths of green ferny dens on this tip of the African continent.

Arum lilies always seem to juxtapose themselves making appearances in unexpected places, next to unexpected connections. An arum lily seen from my flat window stands singularly erect, its sharp pointed tip pointing in the direction of round Water lily leaves. The pointing makes the roundedness of Water Lily more openly fat, more giving and inviting. Arum Lily supports its kingdom. It stands in the middle of delicate peach reed florets, its strength apparent, an unchallenged leader.

Then walking down the street, behind a barbed partly rusted hospital fence, one glared defiantly at me, saying, “ Look, I’m behind bars, but I’m emerging in full bloom, fresh, white, hard. How the whiteness of  Arum Lily transforms as it moves back into Earth is fascinating. From snow white leathery thickness to a creamy white, slowly wrinkling into light brown transparency. The pistil becomes soft and mushy, now most of its pollen has been dispersed in some way or the other. It starts drying out.

How much like the human. We disperse our bounties, dry out, gather wrinkles, but instead of seeing this as beauty in another form, we often regret middle age, our maturing selves, desperately trying to retain that which has to change, that which is a natural part of an inherent unfolding, unflinching cycle.

I was playing taxi woman to my daughter, waiting outside the orthodontist where she was having a different coloured set of braces fitted, like many crazy teens and I, like an outsider, had not the opportunity to sit in a dentist chair for many years, momentarily felt a wave of  slavish resentment, cooped in a broken down car, waiting to taxi her to her next appointment, her art lesson. I was about to think the thought “Spoilt brat”, when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. A massive glorious Arum Lily, primly, lovingly, in a teeny weeny patch of sand outside the orthodontist stoep, winking at me, whispering, “Circumstances matter not. Life is just beginning. “! I smiled at Arum. My spirit soared and danced with its Consciousness of Beingness. Life did indeed just begin. 

Strong yellow erect powdery pistil ::::::::::::::

Magnetically Pure.

Snowy white receptacle.

Alongside Forest trees ####.

Absolutely wild and free &&&&&&

Young and Old Together*******

White winks through the bushes)))))))

Alongside a pond, enjoying the sunshine ''''''''

Unfurling, unfolding, manifesting....

I'm almost done this time around.

Nothing can describe : I am wordless, nameless ....

Yipppeeee ! Middle age, Here I am !

Be holed and Behold and almost begone, but not yet.

Still around, green and brown together Life ends and begins all at  once.

Who I am to Be?

Arum they have called me.

Arum I shall be.

I and mine witness these Humans. They are an interesting lot.

Life is just beginning : Episode 7: Be your own miracle : NOW is the Time...

Miracle Tomato : LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING : EPISODE 7 : by Ghairo Daniels

Shades of grey is Sky today with whiffs of white and dark grey puffs blown across the background  with no respect for time or pace. What is time anyway. Man’s creation. Woman's creation. Layered trees sway in the wind. First the tall old pines, some about to collapse with mere sprinklings of cones on bare branches. Thick shorter trees reach the necks of the pines trying to prevent Decay. But Decay knows its day and does not want to prevent any moving along. There is no grief for change here. Oh no, no.

No grief here : only the Bliss of Infinite Life

Wild canary nests in reeds : ooowoowoo : a cosy little place so well camouflaged, Knysna, Spring 2012, copywrite: ghairo.daniels

Then the flowered bushes, a variety of white, pink and yellow daisy bushes in full spring bloom. Cerise geraniums sit in a corner along the path to the compost heap while wild canaries flit from reed to reed in a lovely muddy pond. A blanket of water-lilies enjoy light sways as I notice many nests in the reeds so well camouflaged. The whoosh sound of  Wind speaks and my mind quietens. Then tens of tens of wild canaries appear from the middle of the reeds, a  tumeric yellow fountain of joy. Another unveiling. Another day. Life is just beginning.

I passed the Rasta fruit stalls early in the morning to buy R20 fruit after I dropped my teenager off at school, and picked up the laundry, trying to calculate how much petrol dough I would need to the end of school term. And the question again arouse – Is this whole private school affair a worthwhile thing ?  Parking the car, I  went for my R20 fruit : asked for one tomatoes, one bananas, one apples and one oranges : meaning a packet of each which would cost R20.

The young Rasta politely said yes Ma’am and very, very slowly, in slowest motion, yet exceptionally alert, in a most gentlemanly manner proceeded to untie a packet to give me one tiny firm tomato. His thick short fingers with fat hands had not seen water for many days, with fingernails not knowing scissors for longer than that. These heavy fat hands, with thick finger knuckles, lovingly and gently took from the plastic packet one small bright red ripe tomato and held it between thumb and forefinger as if a diamond presented to a queen. I watched mesmerized, spellbound by the contrast. Then smiled and said I meant one packet each.

Light of God through  Tomato from Rasta fruit hawker, Knysna Central 2012, copywrite.ghairodaniels2012

Rasta man lovingly replaced tiny smooth gleaming tomato which had now become a ruby, re-tied the packet, still in slow motion, then  proceeded to hand me the rest of my request, as if the Queen of Sheba had just come shopping at his stall. Life had just begun, the fruits of Earth revealed. May that Rasta be blessed and so be his fruit stall. I was not so sorry I could not shop at Woolworths for my tomatoes, private schooling apart.  

TODAY’S RECALLING : SOME PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES FROM “ A COURSE IN MIRACLES.“ check it out ! sweet beings of Love.

·                    There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not harder or bigger than another. They are all the same.

·                     Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.

·                     Miracles are everyone’s right, but purification is necessary first.

·                     Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience or the higher or spiritual level of experience. [which do you choose?]

·                     Miracles are both beginnings and endings, so they alter the temporal order. They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back, but really go forward.

·                     Miracles bear witness to truth. They are convincing because they arise from conviction. Without conviction, they deteriorate into magic.

·                     Miracles transcend the body. They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the bodily level.

·                     Miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. Through miracles, you accept God’s forgiveness by extending it to others.

·                     Miracles rearrange perception and place all levels in true perspective. This is healing because sickness comes from confusing the levels.

·                     The miracle compares what you have made with Creation, accepting what is in accord with it as true, and rejecting what is out of accord as false.

BE YOUR OWN MIRACLE NOW, IN THIS MOMENT OF GLORY.

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www.google.co.za

Life is just beginning : Episode 6 : I am Truth : SAT NAM

I am TRUTH : LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING : EPISODE 6 : by Ghairo Daniels

Because I always have a choice, I choose LOVE. Why ? Because Love is all that there really is.

The setting sun sparkles on the still lagoon. Naked Thesen Islands lies exposed with the Sun’s reflection giving transparency a brilliant meaning. Purple and turquoise patterns open faced allow one solitary yacht to sail slowly lingering along the shore of Leisure Isle. Artists at work concentrate the will to draw out power within and without. Again, the birds, always the birds around. A tiny hummingbird, three inches long, glimmering cobalt blue and juicy orange, play in low leaves, chasing another. Long arum lilies look on, smiling, pistils erect; thick dust of pollen ready for the taking. Life is just beginning.

Knysna East, Arum Lily, Spring2012, copywriteghairo.daniels

Sun halo’s itself, withdraws its reflection, the yacht now halfway across Knysna Lagoon. Thesen becomes whiter while its grey roofs ready itself for evening meals and evening dress. Sun slips behind the hill. At that moment, the street lights are switched on while the dusk boat ride takes over where the yacht left off. It happens in sequence, yet all at once. The unfolding and unfurling pre-programmed while a jogger in new Nike takkies even paces her step.

A tired worker opens the church gate with a last ounce of energy, while a dutiful son simultaneously opens a gate to his father’s house, a FRUIT AND VEG bag filled with the giving. The worker walks up the church garden path to the wooden door and disappears. The father opens the door for his adult son, ears and mouth alert for food, smiling. We each walk our own path, yet all on the same journey, A journey of Love.

QUESTION MARK ?

Slowly does the world

Revolve within universes

Eyeblink by eyeblink

We move forward to

Face ourselves in others’mirrors

Standstill, knowing, looking

When time is a nothingness

Matter, a meaningless mess

As we await the otherside

While the otherside does not await us

We face Responsibility with a capital R

Egos shake, shiver, escape

Whisper and glance in kitchens

Forever in a shambles

Ask to let go, mercy, speed

Forgiveness as the Angel of Death

Tell us 84 is our time when

We say, “ I am infinite”

Untangling threads which we cannot cut

As Source slips forever and a gone

Yet ladidas do not mind and

Rest on a friendly tree

While eclipses take us where we belong

And a scorpion is removed

We bypass fear as it takes a nap

Grief dissolves in ether or rainclouds

We watch dribbles on the window pane

Moving up another hill, another interesting tunnel

Higher, higher, broader, expansive

We way becomes thinner

We glimpse damp, the Books, ancestry

Trolls in corners staring

Simplicity as we swallow the

Question mark ?

Copyright : Ghairo Daniels, Knysna

MANTRA FOR TODAY : SAT NAM : SAT = TRUTH, NAM = I NAME IT

Say  SAT, then  DRAW IN THE NAVEL, HOLD IT WITH THE BREATH, AT NAM,  RELEASE THE NAVEL, RELEASE THE BREATHE. CONTINUE IN THIS WAY UNTIL YOUR SPINE RELAXES.

YUM. LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING !!

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Life is just Beginning: Episode 5 : Kabbalah Notes by Ghairo Daniels

Kabbalah Notes : LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING : EPISODE 5 :  by Ghairo Daniels. 

"We are the same being in different guises."

The mist embalms the acacia trees of life, while they peer through the veil like friendly ghosts. Down the street an early morning car rushes while fat mother guinea fowl scuttles across the road, just missing the tyres. She hurries through a path between two cottages as bird and human dissolve in the mist. The mist cannot decide to leave or to stay. It kisses tree leaves becoming pregnant with chlorophyll, thickens itself as its embalming becomes a heavy embrace. Now trees disappear under the Mist, losing their identity. Mist swells and expands, heavier and heavier, spilling over the entire lagoon. Trees of Life are vanquished and try to recover themselves as Mist moves away.

Now it is time for intermingling with the Lagoon, flirtation happening with its ripples. The Knysna Heads look on pensively. The lagoon belongs to them. They protect it. Mist glances at these protective Heads, quickly covering the hills, showing whose Master now. Then it heaves itself onto Lagoon, a burdened lover, heavy with the tears of Trees. There is just this light grey heaviness wanting to offload, wanting to stay, wanting to cover up in secrecy the rippling gleaming water. On the shore thousands of new-born crabs scuttle around, furiously trying to make sense of the mud, seeking a place to stay.

Mist becomes heavier and heavier. The Heads can do nothing but surrender to the moment. Eastward, a tiny ray of sunlight makes its entry. Now, can Mist stay ? Will it stay ? Will it quickly spume its essential essence? Then it decides to lift, to return from whence it came. Life is just beginning. Mist took and gave, Trees leaned onto and was leaned against, Lagoon offered itself up, Heads surrendered, Mist drank, squirted, and withdrew : The same being in different guises.

  Knysna Heads : cpywrite : Iqraa Daniels

Hundreds of birds enter the scene along the single ray of sunlight. The day begins in earnest. The Kabbalah is being advertised in a workshop in Sea Point by two exotic women who exude the Choice to Love.

SOME KABBALAH LESSONS TO DIG OUT WITHIN YOU :

·                    You come from DAATH, the Abyss, where all knowledge exists without understanding. It has no dimensions, yet is all dimension. This is the gate to the reverse side of the TREE OF LIFE, which you now experience.

·                    Spirit is No Thing.

·                    Will is when No Thing becomes.

·                    Love equals No Thing when it IS.

·                    Within us are all the powers of Love and Will : LE OLAHM LEOLAM : Forever and Ever…

·                    You come down from PURE SPIRIT (Kether) moving towards Ego using your will and love. You are to embrace both severity (Geburrah) and Mercy (Chesed) in your learnings and lessons. You are to use both thought (HOD) and feeling (NETZACH)

·                    Draw on your subconscious past (YESOD) to move through the different veils and use especially your senses (MALCHUTH). Everything you learn, channel into your senses, so expanding them. Obstacles to overcome on the level of Malchuth is inertia and avarice. Overcome them using your WILL.

·                    Get to know your subconscious well : Yesod : This is the gateway to all other levels of awareness. Here you uncover Independence : knowing the plan behind all will be revealed when dependence upon the reasons for the plan is no longer needed.

·                    HOD is your right leg, NETZACH your left. In Hod, overcome falsehood, dishonesty, mental rigidity. Uncover here Truthfulness.

You are the GLORY (Vegedulah) and the Power (Vegeburah) : The two combined equals HEART=LOVE

·                    In Netzach, overcome Lust and uncover Generosity. In Hod, know that knowledge gives greater awareness which in turn, eliminates dishonesty. In Netzach, learn to recognize and express your feelings in a positive manner. And so you move on to Tiphereth, The Trunk of the Body …..

The Kabbalah is one of the most effective tools for grappling with human life in the material realm. It effectively maps the wide range of realities and its various layers and compositions. As you move through the TREE OF LIFE, you arouse LOVE, uncover special gifts, touch the natures of the angelic realms and learn about the qualities of true POWER and how to use it to assist self and others. In a nutshell, if this is possible, the TREE OF LIFE as depicted by the Kabbalah illustrates with clarity that we are responsible for the Greatness of God being manifested in individual lives. Life is just beginning and now ?

Silence is necessary so that greed does not step in.
  

Listening to Divinity==Hello Divinity, “What should I put onto my blog today”

“Whatever you want to, my dear. “

“I should have expected that answer. “

“ Bab-bye.”

“See Ya.”  ========================================================================

Life is just Beginning : Episode 4 : WHO AM I ? Experience a PRESENCE

Spiritual Question : WHO AM I ? .LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING : EPISODE 4 : I AM A FLOWER BY GHAIRO DANIELS  

It was about 2 in the morning when a series of bird calls woke me abruptly from a slumber. There was absolute silence and a blackness unknown. The street lights outside my flat for some reason was not on. No shadows or flare peered through the curtains. Inside the flat, with no electricity and no lamps, no hums from the fridge or computer filtered under the door, neither could I hear any scratches from my daughter’s all night sketching pencil by candlelight.

The first bird sound pierced the centre of my heart as if its peak stabbed the core. I gently placed my palm over the point murmuring silently the YUM mantra, focusing on the in breath and out breath. THE BREATH IS LIFE. Y for Father-God. U for the beginning and M for Mother-God, Earth Consciousness, Mother Earth, nurturing, the beginning of life in form. My heart calmed. A pinky flush circled my palm. Then the second bird calls sounded, rhythmically hollow, like a small soft drum. My heart echoed this. The heart chakra opened, stretched thin and translucent. It spread over my chest and over a chakra that was more open than mine. I saw an angelic face, bright silver.

The third sound became more earthy, birdsound as I knew it in everyday reality. There was bird conversation, calls and answers from afar, from the other side of the lagoon. Life was just beginning. Absolute silence and absolute darkness was shattered and God in this embracing form slipped away. A thin golden strand between the veil and my heart withdraw. A slip moment when I had to say goodbye and was not alert enough to do so.

The night continued as I lay under the warm dark red blanket giving myself Reiki, calling on my angels and guides to bless the day ahead, the challenges I have to stay centered in increasing pressure and outside provocations. Images of the Garden with flute-playing minstrels appeared in bright hues while tiny violet flowers beamed at me, petals so delicately exposed. Here I knew who I was.

“WHO AM I ? WHO AM I ? “ This is one primary question for School on Earth.  

EXERCISE for you, Oh, sweet Ones : Breath in. Breath out. Prepare as if for meditation :  Then  - Ask the Question :

WHO AM I ? Slowly an answer will emerge. The answer will be yours. Each is unique and changes at any given point. After each answer, give Thanks. A new answer will appear. Here are the answers streaming to me.

WHO AM I ?

I am He-She.

THANKYOU.

WHO AM I ?

I am Creation.

THANKYOU.

WHO AM I ?

I am the Designer of my own Destiny.

THANKYOU.

WHO AM I ?

I am a flower .

The Anchorage Back Garden, Knysna spring 2012 : cpywrite : Ghairo Daniels

THANKYOU.

WHO AM I ?

I am ALL-THAT-IS.

THANKYOU.

Just by asking this question, a Presence can be revealed. Life can be witnessed as a non-ending, Life- is- Beginning cycle.

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Life is just beginning: Episode 3: Buttercup Yellow

 LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING : EPISODE 3 : CHAKRA 3

“You are the life that is present when all else comes and goes …”

Life is just beginning in rosy orange cheeks. Clara, my daughter’s cockatiel, cheeks have transformed itself into the brightest orange spots from the palest orange hue. Her plume has gone buttercup yellow from lemon yellow. Her under wings displays the full range of yellow tones from its snowy white winter dress. She demonstrates Heraclitus’ famous quote : ‘The only thing that does not change, is change itself’. Everything changes. A primary lesson on Earth School is to embrace all change. There is no other way. EMBRACE AND ACCEPT WHATEVER COMES YOUR WAY.

Yellow is the colour associated with the navel chakra. It denotes your sense of Self, who you are in the material realm, the way you choose to construct your personality, the methods you use to access what you want to do on Planet Earth. Said another way, it denotes your EGO – the beginning of life in a physical body. Yay ! Life is just beginning. This chakra is associated with the power animals Lynx, Grizzly and Polar Bears, Tigers, Cheetahs, Lions, Lionesses at Hunt, Apes, Rhinos, Panthers, Blood Hounds. In the bird world, it is associated with vultures and falcons and in the reptile world, with pythons. FEEL THE POWER TIP : Place images of these around you when feeling powerless.

Other colours associated with this chakra are Gold and Electric Blue. Breathe it in when you feel your self-esteem escaping. So Oh Ho Ho … the yellow daffodils just sprung in my flat’s garden attracts these power animals. Clara’s plume stimulates my navel chakra and connects it to the centre of the morning sunlight. I take in the Power of One through this centre. It moves my belly : my pancreas, liver, spleen, gall bladder, colon and small intestine connected to this chakra responds in unison. I connect to ALL-THAT- IS knowing in this centre that I am One with God and God is everything. In our Solar Plexus-Navel Chakra, we access our positive identities through the knowledge that we reflect Creation as an expression of its reality and its evolution.

BEING-NESS keeps this chakra and its organs healthy. Be in the present moment, be yourself, be your true feelings. This is the way of the Wind – It is whatever it is in all its forms - from a playful breeze to a roaring whirlwind – in its being-ness, it blows sunflower seeds across the plains of time – blooming in cycles of sunlight for our salad at lunchtime. Yum. Life it just beginning.   

LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING SERIES: Episodes 1 and 2 : Energy dances when vision is clear/The pink Loeries come to visit ...

LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING : Episode 1 by Ghairo Daniels : September 2012

Today the sun shines on the rooftops outside. The lagoon is still and clear. It is springtime. Hornets’ nests hang in bulges on tree branches delighted with new weight while the rusty Woodpecker makes conversation with the Ladida in the driveway.

Each new blade of grass ever changes its cellular dance. My bits of skin flakes attach themselves to my vest with the last micro-chip of electricity left before it falls onto the carpet to be vacuumed. Dead. Making way for new life. New skin from the avocado I had last night – blessed it for giving up its life for me. Then the loquat bends towards my lips to be picked and tasted. It is a beginning. Absolutely fresh. Nothing alive now ever existed before in exactly the same way. Yet it seems the same. Absolutely not. The Divine is not still for one millionth of a second.

I hold the micro-scope of my pupils closer, zoom onto the pond outside. The wooden bridge is about to collapse, its wood rotting from the overflowing pond. We have had good rains from the heavens this winter while I nearly sobbed with cold without electricity. Life is just beginning in this very moment as I touch this keypad, listening to a lawn-mower outside. Blissed out with Divine Love. .

How can energy dance, yet standstill ? How can a house have an aura ? Do the inanimate  move as well ? The questions tumble from lips in the meditation room. Then over a wire someone whispers, ‘I have no answers, only questions.’ The questions are about blood.

Energy dances when vision is clear and our hearts purified with love. We see through the materiality of the object. We enter the wall and touch the essence of the house and know that this house is solid, clean, ordered. That house has movement, clarity, a sure sparkling relaxed and duty-bound freedom.

An inanimate crystal on the windowsill sits still, bathed in sunlight. It moves not like the guinea-fowl outside, yet its vibration is as alive, touching, it changes its inner form, gently, a powerful healing tool. Thank You God for crystals. They ground us, protect us, keep us safe, layer upon layer within the womb of Mother Earth.

As the question is asked, the answer is formed because the question contains within it the answer. We only ask the question to peel the skin and chew the answer. Then when we swallow the answer, it already asks a new question – like this orange I have just eaten. The vitamin C will play violin with the MSG I had yesterday in my Fritos. Then flush, flush, down the toilet pot, into the drainage system as I remember to say thank you Drainage System for so effortlessly taking my garbage away.

The question about blood ? Dried blood only gives rise to red fresh new blood. There is no other way. We spiral upwards with each new liter of blood we have given up. Life is just beginning.   

LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING : KNYSNA: EPISODE 2 : PINK LOERIES : Sept.2012

By Ghairo Daniels

Life is just beginning in a symphony of  birdsong : Gulls giving chorus to Little Dappers and Turtle-doves while Sugarbirds swiftly flutter from branch to branch. Clinging to the fence which divides the school’s hockey field from the Nature Reserve are two loving – wait for it – PINK LOERIES (!), flapping their wings in glee, showing off their magnificence. They tell the kids, look ‘LIFE IS JUST BEGINNING. We are in LOVE. Come to us, fly with us. We are freedom itself.’ The kids ? What could they do, but watch in wonder. The teacher ?  Awe-struck. Pink Loeries come to visit the school. Honoured we are.

Hills like quiet breasts surround the lagoon peacefully protecting the town, and far in the distance lights are still flickering while bougainvillea twists itself in crimson blaze up a wall. It shapes itself into a triangle of Love. Triangles : The Sign of Protection : Father, Mother, Spirit Connected in pyramids of splendid coloured blood – signs of remembering. Remembering who we are, where we come from and where we return to.

In a blackhole we sat in a pod, little lights in an oak-like chamber, a part of the Pit, the space between spaces. Who sat with us ? Soul mates, family members, guides, teachers. Here we contemplated ‘Life is just beginning.’ We sat in anticipation, with some reticence. Some of us did not want to descend. We needed spurring on, encouraged, told that we would not be alone. We remembered Earth before. All was not Bliss.

There was Darkness which took many forms and shapes : war, chaos, terror, rage. This was a part of the ALL that we did not want to return to. But our incomplete lessons awaited. We had not glimpsed enough PINK LOERIES. Our remembrance of gratitude was limited. We had not stood in awe and wonder when the loeries came to say ‘Hi There.’ We competed to win games played across wires while LOERIES called us to attention. Return we must. Only in form can we learn lessons of gratitude, of the newness of life.

The  strange thing was that  this teacher, in this pod, chose to be our student. We change roles with the same soul mates when we have to exchange learnings and rememberings.

“WHAT  IS THE MAIN LESSON THAT ONE SHOULD REMEMBER ?”, the younger of two souls asked  soundlessly with a little bit of disdain  – a wave of energy ripples in uncertainty. Her mind will be wiped clean before she descends in any case.  

Then strength and certainty : There is no MAIN LESSON. Rememberings and lessons differ from soul to soul. One LESSON  is :

·                    That ALL wantings are not of the Beginning or the End, where there is no BEGINNING AND NO END.  All wantings are of  MIND,  the egoic constructed self – that gets deconstructed as we move along the way. Wantings may be for hot chocolate or pretty jewelry. It may be for wisdom or greater beauty, human flesh or spiritual essence. Whatever it is, if it is a wanting, neither here nor there, it is not a part of who you really are.

·                    A second LESSON is LET GO.  Let go of everything. Let go of the PINK LOERIES once you have thrilled yourself with their glory, beauty and delights. They appeared so that you may experience AWE and give gratitude. Let go of the pretty little necklace. Its time was only for that moment, in that space while playing guitar on stage.  Let go of the wetlands once you have reconstructed it. Let go of soul mates, teachers, friends, furniture, food, essences, time, spaces. Anything in space-time is not of your essential nature.

           

YOUR ESSENTIAL NATURE IS NOTHINGNESS : All wanting, having, acquiring,        sickness, death, loss, change is part of the peeling.

Life is just beginning.