Flowers Flowers Everywhere

Oh my, what a day it was.  Heavy rains falling all morning.  The first time my autistic companion and I would be forgoing our walk. Suddenly, an unexpected break in the weather.  Heading out in our rubber boots.  Mine bursting with colourful hearts.  Perfect for navigating the water logged trail and its plentiful mud puddles. Halfway into our creek side stroll, noticing a small shiny object lying in the dirt. The size of a penny.  Silver in colour.  Dismissing it as a piece of trash. Carrying on.  Then stopping.  Backtracking.  Picking it up and turning it over.  Holding a clear resin flower shaped embellishment in my hand. In pristine condition.  Five multifaceted petals with silver backing.  Not valuable in the traditional sense.  However, priceless to me.  Instantly recognizing this as a sign from my late mother.  Laughing out loud. January 4th, her birthday.  A task that had already been planned for later that afternoon?  Purchasing a bouquet to tie to her memorial bench in the Village.  More than a token gesture.  As an avid gardener, flowers had been a great passion of hers.  Evening came.  Off to Open Circle with guided meditation at the ISA.  The facilitator describing a grassy meadow to explore.  Mine filled with red poppies instead.  Trying hard to find the grass.  The poppies stubbornly remaining.  Continuing along a path.  Hearing the message whispered by the trees, "You are doing it". Reassuring me that I was on the right track.  Arriving at a bench and resting there.  Soon feeling my mother hug me from behind.  Pink and gold energy surrounding us.  Just as described in a previous ISA encounter.  Then clearly hearing my mother utter three words. "Forget me not."  Initially confused.  Of course not, she was my mother.  Then, the aha moment.  At her service ten years ago, I had arranged for two kinds of seed packages to be available for guests to take home.  Plant in her memory.  Poppies was one, forget-me-nots, the other.  Yesterday, a colourful day filled with flowery signs from spirit.  Not consciously asked for.  Yet offered up in abundance for me to recognize and treasure. With love, beauty, and uplifting energy.  Dankeschön Mama. 

Remembrance Day 11-11-11

Pondering this holiday.  Remembrance Day.  Evoking confusion and sadness within.  Born in Canada in the 50's to newly arrived German immigrant parents.  Before reaching their teens, both left fatherless due to the war.  My father frequently imparting stories at our dinner table of those horrific years.  His underlying anger while describing frequent bombings, scarce resources, bloodshed, and lives lost.  Often blaming the enemy.  Portraying his family and friends as the victims.  Truly patriotic.  As a young person, all of this leaving me quite confused. Wondering about the glaring omission of the fact that his leaders had instigated that violence.  Later understanding that his upbringing was yet another tragic war casualty.  The children all victims of course. Subsequently noting my father and father-in-law technically enemies before my birth.  The latter enlisting with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Dropping bombs overseas.  My life informed by these two families on opposing sides of those circumstances.  Born into one, married into the other.  Leaving me somewhere in-between.  Thinking of all those who have needlessly suffered in countless wars.  Saving the poppies for others to wear.