The Winds of Giving / Unseen Influences

I started to write this for my Give It Away Wednesday post for May 8, 2024, at our Grace in Giving group on Facebook, but it evolved into a bigger idea than just observing grass blowing in the wind or the idea of unseen influences affecting our Giving so I decided to give it space here as well.

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Contemplating the blowing grass outside my window now that the sun is shining on it (written on a post-storm sunny Tuesday afternoon before a stormy Give It Away Wednesday), it obviously needs mowing, but the ground is saturated, so the grass is taking advantage and shooting up, energized by the nourishment of soaking rains and drawing sun before the tornadic spin of steel blades come and cut them at their dancing shins.

As I watch the waving green stems of mixed variation going to seed, they appear to be dancing. Since I can’t see the physical force that is moving them, do they have a mind of their own and are simply rejoicing from their tender but sturdy roots in the bright air and sky? Or are unseen influences causing them to behave this way?

Ever since I first read of Abbie Deal’s experiences of settling on the Nebraska prairie with her new husband Will (A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich), I have always remembered Abbie’s description of the landscape as she described the waves of grass-covered plains blowing in the endless wind – roll, wave, ripple, dip – roll, wave, ripple, dip. She didn’t like the treeless flat land, which eventually led her to plant the Lombardy poplars lining the path from the road to her home that became sort of a signature of their property referenced frequently in the text.

Okay, fine, but what does this have to do with Giving and Gratitude?

The unseen wind blows across the grass, across the land and all that is sitting upon it. Mother Earth gives everything needed to sustain the planet – air, water, wind, and even fire. The sun and dirt give nutrients to vegetation and the vegetation gives to the wildlife and the wildlife often gives its life to human. The human uses all of these resources for survival. It’s a cycle on the higher plane of Giving and Receiving. At the end of the cycle, it all goes back to its origin. Circle of Life.

Reviews of the book speak volumes to all that Abbie Deal gave. First, she gave up her personal dreams, but she gained a family and helped create a new community in a foundling state. Readers express the depth of impression the book placed on their hearts because of Abbie’s giving nature, and her importance in her family as Mother and Grandmother, which she probably never fully comprehended as significant outside of herself. The poignancy of Aldrich’s writing is memorable.

We make choices in life about where we will live, what work we will devote ourselves to, and with whom we will associate in creating families, friendships, and community connections. Sometimes, like Abbie Deal, we make tradeoffs of what we think we want to what we end up choosing. Did Aldrich intend to make such an influence on generations of readers when she simply paraphrased the story of her mother’s and grandmother’s lives? The gift she gave us through her stories (Lantern, and others) was one of emotional connection to real life’s love and heartache reflected through fictional characters. She gave us a piece of herself.

As the Winds of Giving urge us to dance with the delight of merging ourselves in that unending flow of Giving and Receiving, let us be mindful of the unseen influences that motivate us to Give and serve and share and love. Let us stand facing those Winds and be the Grateful Receivers of Blessings as they roll, wave, ripple, and dip into and through our lives, and the lives of those we serve.

Happy Mother’s Day – a little in advance – to the Ultimate Givers, mothers and mother figures in all their nurturing forms. 💛

Shapeshifters in the Sky

One of the perks of where I work is the drive to and from; it’s almost rural going towards the airport and I get to notice the sky and landscape in a way I wouldn’t if I worked across town or downtown.

Almost every day, I notice the sky, the way the sunlight reflects off the clouds, off the trees and landscape. And almost every day that there are clouds in the sky, I get a never-before-seen-never-to-be-seen-again look at amazing works of art that, a mile down the road or even five hundred feet, will look different.

As children, we made a game out of looking at the sky and identifying shapes in the clouds. When is the last time you noticed an angel or zebra arching across the blue? As a busy adult, you may be overlooking some of the most amazing experiences available for free.

I’ve recently noticed an increase in delightful visual illusions in the sky, white vapors that look amazingly like dead presidents (Abe Lincoln’s profile, in particular). I see angels and angel wings almost every day or every few days. Dogs, profiles, all sorts of acts of creation occur above our heads – all we have to do is look up. The heavenly beings are hard at work to create artful masterpieces, if we have but eyes to see them with.

A couple of days ago, I was sky-watching as I drove home (careful to keep an eye on the road, too!), and I observed a gigantic sea turtle sailing overhead, floating along on the breeze. The next day, off to my right (west), at about three o’clock high, I saw another turtle, with a definitely humped shell and head raised so he could “see” where he was headed.

Bells start ringing in my brain that interprets everything metaphysically. Two turtles in two days?
I spoke to the turtle. “Hi, there, little fella. What are you trying to tell me? Slow down, huh?”

He actually smiled!!

“You trying to tell me to just stop and slow down, is that right?”

The smile deepened and his eyes crinkled with amusement at my insanity, even winking at me.
Okay, I know. It was cloud vapor changing in the wind, not a real turtle smiling and winking.

Then today, as I was being driven back to work from a service department where I had dropped off a company vehicle for repair, I had the rare luxury of being in the passenger seat and – yes, you guessed it – watch the sky. I saw two hearts (not with each other, but separate). One had one side of it swirling into its own center.

Talk about spiritual imagery!

So, with my refocus on gratitude, I am now being directed to focus also on love and slowing down to appreciate more.

Appreciate what more?

Appreciate everything more. Sometimes we get so busy with work and home obligations that we forget to appreciate what it is we’re really working for after all.

Love is all around us. It’s reflected back to us from the sky in heart-clouds and smiling turtles and wise presidential profiles.

The events in our lives are like the clouds in the sky – in the sense that they, too, are shape shifters. Things can change in the blink of an eye and if we’re not paying attention, we won’t notice what happened, or maybe won’t even be able to remember how it was before.

The turtle has the reputation of being slow and steady; after all, the tortoise won the race with the hare. That’s example enough that hurrying won’t get us there any faster. And it’s not even being slow that is important, but what it represents (because the clouds shape-shifted very quickly); slowing down empowers us to be steady, focus our attention, make choices deliberately, be aware of our surroundings and what is happening right now.

We can learn from the theatre in the sky. Clouds go with the flow, molding themselves into new shapes, sometimes billowy and full, sometimes flat or scattered, sometimes dark or blindingly bright. But they don’t resist the change in the wind; they just recreate themselves into new reflections of Love and Gratitude for all of Creation.