Today I am rejoicing in fragrance. In the studio, lilies fill the air with heady sweetness. In the kitchen, the orange tree is in bloom, and the jasmine. Last night, my nose stayed awake to the fragrance of Easter Lilies.
The other day my daughter Rose flitted from Easter Lily to Orange blossoms , expressing giddy intoxication and delight and fullness and joy. She swept up her skirt and did a little dance. “Who needs drugs with natural intoxicants like these?” she asked. I jumped at the chance to mention that God, too, is an intoxicant. Today I am lightheaded, each breath a kind of bliss. This is from the fragrance, I know, but also from a beautiful walk I had this morning.
There were ominous clouds ahead, but I headed out anyway. I have been been savoring these words of Saint Teresa of Avila, “Just these two words He spoke changed my life, ‘Enjoy Me.’” And I have been sensing of late that there is nowhere that God is not. God is in the fragrance of the flowers, in the Stone beneath the Holly Tree that invited me to pause for stillness- to rest in a pocket of eternity. God is in the Cypress tree that stands bold like a flame in the field nearby. God is in the water, the cakes, the young woman I meet at the cafe. I believe that Teresa of Avila also said that prayer was being on terms of friendship with God. I have been feeling this friendship of late- with God, with life, and also with myself. The Buddhist Teacher Pema Chodron teaches that Maitri is being a friend to yourself; being able to relax with yourself, and that it is the basis of compassion, and a seed of happiness and well being. This week I am feeling that.
(If the word ‘God’ is troubling for you, I hope you can find it in your heart to substitute a deeper meaning: Infinite Love, The Divine, Spirit, The Energy of Life. Sometimes I use the words Friend, Beloved, even Home. Try as I may, I always come back to God.)
I hope you, dear friends, are enjoying such friendship as well: with Life, with yourself, with those you meet. And I wish you every Joy in the coming days.
Ingrid,
Hopefully you won’t hate me for it, but I ‘tagged’ you in my latest post to list
7 facts about yourself (check the post for details.) No hard feelings if you
don’t want to participate – I have ignored many of these kinds of things in the
past, but decided to do it this time. I thought it might be fun to learn more about you!
This post is just so lovely and soulful. You offer us a beautiful invitation here. I accept! I also appreciate how you feel solid enough in yourself to use the word God, yet invite others to express their own names for the Divine. Your book, Naming the Divine, is wonderful for this. A real treasure. I wish I could gift it to everyone I know!
i was thinking such similar thoughts today… just walking outside has become such a sensual experience … the fragrances are so intoxicating… the air just seems to alive with sounds and smells carried by a spring breeze to be enjoyed, immersed in… celebrated…
inhaling…
Hi Jan…seven things…oh my! The first would be how slowly I react! And thank you for your friendly encouragement. I think I will try to create a free e-book on Naming the Divine. I am learning how to make pdfs, with this in mind… So many ideas! So many ideas! But still intoxicated by the fragrance.
Joanne, your comments on my blog always carry me right back into the feeling-tone I was expressing. You are in California, aren’t you? We lived in L.A. before having kids- I loved the sunshine, roses year round…and orange groves! I want to bring my girls there someday, just to inhale a full sense of orange blossoms by the grove-full.