Spirit (3)

FLOWERS

How rich a place where flowers grow by the side of the road.  Where the sun warms you through to your bones.  Where the smiles of the people you meet in the streets reach through to your soul.  It's important to go slowly enough to see as much and feel as much as you possibly can.  It's a kind of love that the world gives generously in return for your noticing what is around you.  Every flower has a spirit of its own and relishes the attention bestowed upon it.  It responds to the open face of the person bending over it to admire its intricate construction and beautiful colors.

FRIENDSHIP

There are certain people who become special to us during our life's time.  Each person possesses their own unique spirit, their soul.  One person becomes a friend to another person when their spirits meet and touch in a special way.  When two Hindus meet, each joins his hands together, bows and says, "Namaste," which means, "I greet the god within you."  How perfectly right to always be conscious of the inner spirit instead of giving emphasis to outward, superficial appearances.  Would that we could all see the god-like spirit within every person whose path crosses ours.  How much more respect we would feel.  And how much awe to truly understand that God is alive (though not necessarily well!) within every one of us. 

When a person offers a gift of friendship, it is a gift of love, a sharing from soul to soul, a bond, a connection.  We meet people for a reason - because they will have some effect on us as we will also have on them.  They may carry a clue that we need to discover; they may offer encouragement, even inadvertently, when it is needed; they ease the loneliness of a too-solitary life.  They share our interests, spark our imaginations, and warm our hearts.  How special then is the gift of friendship.

HARMONY

You are a spirit, a spiritual entity - one that is housed within an earthly body.  Think of the body as a vehicle for the soul.  The soul absorbs and shares and, hopefully, has the opportunity to grow, to develop through what you choose to do with your body.  The soul "goes along for the ride."  It grows through a person's acknowledgement of its existence, as in prayer or meditation.  Knowledge enters through the mind via discussion or reading, satisfaction accrues through creative activities; sensual pleasure through physical contact, the taste of food and drink, the sight of beauty, the sound of music or laughter, the smell of flowers, the security of home.  When there is synchrony - then there is a contentment, a satisfaction, and a joy - because as the spirit and the body develop a working, sharing interaction, so much more of life seems to go smoothly.  Difficulties are less troublesome, problems can be seen in perspective, and each day is an opportunity taken for development.  The body grows healthier, the mind expands through learning, and life itself becomes a creative act on the part of each harmonized individual.

(More to follow.)