wild flower spirit: RIPPLE EFFECTS

Isaak Lake

Bowron Lakes Prov.Park, B.C.
pic Janine Weber

Last Wednesday at my joining with the weekly women dance-circle, we were given the Element Water to relate with. The question: What does your water emotionally look like inside you, at this moment? Is it a lake, a creek, a waterfall? Are there boulders or driftwood blocking its flow? Is the water clean or perhaps polluted?

Visualizing this image and relating to it, offered me the opportunity to specificly relate with this given Element. To feel its essence, its spirit, becoming one with it. The Element Water is my best buddy. I simply love it. Water cleanses my whole being within and without, from inner and outer filth. I am one of those who loves long showers, sorry I just can't resist. My payback is to be very cautious with water when I am out trekking in the wild.

pic Janine Weber

Within the dance-circle of women, a lotus candle is softly glowing. We share our images out loud, in words. One of the dance sisters, visualizes her water as a creek, bubbling its way undisturbed over moss-covered rocks and nests of old tree-roots. It flows towards a beautiful lake, softly calling. There it joins with other creeks, becoming one big vessel of water, a womb to rest in.

Her story awakened an image within me; many creeks become one, changing form. How does this picture fit in the cycle of my Life lived? I see my being standing on the shore of a calm and magical lake. The landscape is litten up by a full moon hanging in a crystal clear nightsky. The surface of this moon lake shows no movements, mirror clear. I pick up a nice round palm-flat stone and with a flip of my hand it skips now over the lakes mantle of reflection. With big eyes and holding my breath I wait what happens, especially how many skips the stone may jump. Memories of childhood appear before my eye! How could I forget, so much fun.

Uniting these two images, I came to the following story:

If I regard the creeks, the streams, the rivers, the waterfalls as stories of my emotional Self, I can see a landscape of my emotions from a more aerial view and not stuck within it. All these waters of emotions will eventually meet one another. Some unite into a little pond, surrounded by a pristine forest, home to many little creatures. Others slip joyfully into a crystal clear lake, mirroring the sky and clouds above, home to many fish and birds. The creeks with more adventure-lust, break their way through earths body until they at last join into the saltwaters of the ocean, coming home at last. Life is the River, Death is the vast Ocean, rising up to the skys to be reborn again on Earth, their arrival celebrated by Rainbows.

Rainbow Goddess

- Howard David Johnson

There are other water elements which are not flowing well at all. Their flow blocked by stubborn driftwood and boulders; manmade walls of cement, cutting off the natural flow of the waters path, desperately trying to nuture its surroundings. These are the ones which need to be looked at, to be worked on and especially to be patient with. Creativity is required. How to undo these blockages, how to redirect the waters path, if no other solution is possible? Start somewhere and go step by step. What helps me to make a choice, is to take a step back from the situation, study the facts from an aerial point of view and let go of any defined conclusions. Usually a solution will appear.

During my wilderness walk-abouts, I come into situations, where only this strategy will help me further. The language is here pure natural, organic and universal. Watching a water-gorge; my first canoe trip, trying to figure out how the hell do we paddle down that running river, we had to let go of every single thought and just watch and wait. We sat down, made a hot cup of tea and ate some peanutbutter-jelly bannocks. Delicious! We forgot for awhile about the journey ahead and started truly watching the area, we blended in, meditation. As soon as this happened, a family of harkelin-ducks came around the corner, paddling along the shore up to the beginning of the gorge, her little ones close behind. As soon as she reached the beginning of the V, they crossed over, swung their tails around and glided backwards down the gorge. I mean hey, what was she thinking! They all dive under just before the end of the V and one by one they pop up on safe shore. This show she offered us three times and then went on to other lectures.

My friend and I looked at eachother, smiled and laughed about the whole comedy. The solution to our problem was given beautifully by mother nature. Bless her! Of course we did not go backwards down the gorge or dived under water, bitte schoen! So this story, I regard as having a lesson of perceiving my life from an aeriel point of view. Fantastic!

Bowron Lakes Prov.Park, B.C.
pic Janine Weber

Ripple Effects, the stone I tossed onto the surface of the lake, interrupted its serene beauty of peace. Her calm surface was now ripped open by an object, letting movement to ripple across her cloak. A loon calls, the water tries to catch my toes. I listen and watch. Movement within the tree line on the shore across from me. I hear rushling in the bushes, a squeak. Looking again towards the opposite shore a picture out of a dream appears: elk deer guarded by the King. Is this real? I watch and offer my tears of awe, so much beauty.

By tossing this stone I caused a ripple effect on the calm undisturbed surface of my emotional waters. This tickling on its surface caused my emotions to stir, to awake. Sleeping beauty has been kissed, life trickling through her body unblocking all walls of frozen emotions and polluted waters. Cleansed again from stubborn beliefs and thoughts of fear. The Ripple Effect is always different, sometimes it's a wild ride, othertimes just a fun roll. The waters within me have become stronger and less stagnant. There is a pattern now and not complete chaos. Settling down, I take time to become accustomed to these new insights, waiting for the next ripple effect to take place, sooner or later. One of Lifes universal laws: Cause and effect. This law I give my regards every moment of my being here, as best as I can, a practice not to underestimate.

The flap of a butterfly's wings in Central Park could ultimately cause an earthquake in China.
So say the proponents of chaos theory, who use 'the butterfly effect' to describe how small and apparently insignificant incidents can set in motion a chain of events with far reaching consequences.(check out www.bleeding-obvious.co.uk/butterfly/butterfly.htm.) A very interesting read. Also a good watch, the movie "Butterfly Effect" with Ashton Kutcher. Is not Life all about Cause and Effect, that which keeps it moving, evolving, changing? What an amazing universal law when lived with awareness.