Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Chi of Life

Be praised, my God, by butterfly and dragonfly wings exercising
     for their first flight.
Be praised by lightning and thunder causing spring showers.
Be praised by the silent voice of grass growing and trees budding.
Be praised by all the colorful flower trumpets of spring.
Be praised by downy feathers freshly dried on newly hatched ducklings and chicks.
Be praised by the songs of birds, crickets and frogs.
Be praised, my God, by all your creation which tells of new life.
          Mary Goergen, O.S.F.
          From: Earth Prayers, p. 299
Such a wonderful poem/prayer that describes the unfolding of spring that I'm witness to here in my woodland home. Just today I noticed the first butterflies circling around my head as I walked down the driveway.

The lightning and thunder, too, have come and gone, come and gone throughout the day. One moment distant thunder drums through darkening skies and the next moment hot yellow sun shines onto colorful blossoms that peek quietly through grass and trees.

While I practiced T'ai Chi Chih on the deck during a rainfree half hour I watched Frances walk the chicken and goose down the drive to feed (worms emerging from the darkness of the earth for Chickie and bountiful grass growing along the drive for Lucy). Meanwhile birds fluttered from the feeder and sang through the trees like an impromtu chorus of seasoned professionals.

After I finish my blog I'll pick a bouquet of tiny forget-me-nots to place on the dining table in order to bring the beauty of the outdoors inside. Of course, insects and mosquitoes have arrived in my neighborhood too. They flitted around me during my outside practice and managed to take a nip or two.

During my practice, though, I felt like a lucky recipient of all of creation; of life, and birth, and growth. Of budding, opening, greening, and expanding. I am aware of so much new life that is currently rooting itself deep into the earth as it extends its head toward the sky. We are--all of us--T'ai Chi Chih players as we circulate the Chi through our living, breathing, growing bodies....

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