Mile Marker

It's been awhile, I know. But trust me: I've been making tracks on this Freeway--quite the scenic route, to say the least--and I've been accumulating mucho evidence of Love having its way and...well, it's been rather piling up. So I pulled off to set up shop and begin production.

Production?

Yes. Phase two, after the birth of the blog a month and (almost) a half ago. But I'm getting to that.

First, I want to thank 'eezngrce' for the recent extremely thoughtful comment. In particular, your words:

"You forgot, which is our vast and endless human story. We are the great forgetters are we not? We forget. We lose contact with still awareness, with our inherent essential beingness..."

Your words excited me. "Yes, yes!" I thought. "That's it exactly. We forget." That's the reason for Love's Freeway, and for whatever comes down this pike. Phase two, for example. But hold on; I'm getting to that.

Make no mistake: Love's way is no utopia. Sometimes Love's way is to take a life. A limb. To cause devastation, to raze, to smother. To level, in mind, body and/or spirit. I have not intended to paint a myopic, one-sided, or sugar-coated picture here. Love's way includes many an "ugly," painful, trying mile. Yes, sometimes one must lose one's mind in order for Love to get its way. Or lose one's home or cat or spouse or breast. I will expand on this another time, if need be. But for the moment (since I'm really hot to talk about Phase two, as you well know), suffice it to say that resistance that blocks the flow of that "inherent essential beingness" blocks Love's way. The result of that block is all manner of unhappiness, all manner of illness. And these can be, if we're listening for it, the great awakeners, great gifts. Reminders that we've forgotten.

I've long taken comfort and cues from Nature, which is supremely adept at giving Love its way. Nature expresses its "inherent essential beingness"...well, naturally. I've said it before: trees tree. Ducks duck. The moth moths. I've never seen a moth trying to bee or bird or duck or tree. Moths moth, and that's all. And it gets even more specific of course. Monarchs monarch. Snapdragons snapdragon. Sycamores sycamore. That's all. They never stop and ask "How'm I doing?" The horsechestnut tree never inquires, "Hey, whadya think of these chestnuts? Pretty good, huh?" Because trees tree. They live outside the realm of dichotomous thought, of the duality of good or bad, right or wrong. They simply express what they're here to express, without pause and with no need for applause.

We (humans), as expressions of the Natural World, are capable of this as well, capable of living outside the realm of the duality of good and bad, right and wrong, expressing what we're here to express, without pause and with no need for applause--purely, truly. But ha ha, and alas: as 'eezngrce' reminds us: we forget.

The scenery, the images I've posted here thus far are intended as reminders. Such exquisite, arresting evidence of Love's way, which in a busy day you might very well pass and not even notice, walking around your world, I've deliberately captured, close up, for just this purpose. I defy you to look deep into the throat of a bearded iris and tell me it doesn't embody the pure, true expression.

And at last, this brings me to Phase two.

I have capture hundreds of such images, offer hundreds of such reminders. And am adding to them almost daily. (Like I said, lots of evidence has been piling up.) So I've set up the shop, and gone to town transforming these images, these captured evidences, these often breathtaking reminders into a goodly supply of original, handmade note cards. And as of today, they are officially available for purchase. And when I can get the elves busily at work with card production--at least the elf or elves with web design skills--over to the computer to build our website, it will be my wholehearted pleasure and fulfillment to feature them there. Phase three will include enlarged, matted and framed (or unframed) prints as well, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Watch for a future mile marker to announce that.

Why am I joyful about this?

Because sure: words can be wonderful reminders. Words can inspire, instruct, inquire, involve, incite--do so many things. But how much more preferable and pleasing it is to 'get it from the horse's mouth.' I'm happier to let the evidence (not mine, Love's) speak for itself. Plus, the concrete fact of these cards means the Freeway has just expanded to reach wider and farther than it has up to now. It will reach into anniversary and birthday and wedding celebrations. (One card has already been purchased for a wedding gift, one has honored 26 years of great leadership and community building, one has appreciated a dinner host.) It will reach into reunions and graduations and reconciliations. It will provide bridges for forgiveness, for ardor, for apology, for tribute, for--of all things-- love.

Am I excited? YES, I am excited!

Witness the evidence yourself and remember.