Photo quote de jour (scroll way down).

This is the promised follow-up from yesterday's post. One of favorite mottoes is : Expect the unexpected. Curve balls come in all shapes and sizes. God, a higher power or whatever you believe in, threw me a doozy. The plan was to share the post-storm photos of cherry blossoms and other blooms from the Harts Brook Nature reserve. Beautiful images. But so what? There had to be more than the usual "stop and smell the x" sentiment. But what? I walked into postcard perfect Zen scene. It doesn't get any better than the magic or golden hour after a rainstorm. No need to tweak nature's technicolor here.



 I expected a throng of like-minded people gawking at the surreal beauty, but I had the place to myself. I stepped onto the path with the anticipation of Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road, but who would be the wizard?



Everywhere I looked, clouds of blossoms danced in the breeze whispering, "Look at me, look at me." Not only were the blossoms at their peak but heavy with diamond droplets of rain. The air smelled super-charged, as if giant scent molecules exploded extra oxygen into the electric air. I felt woozy from the sheer excess of beauty and joy.  No matter where I pointed my lens it found beauty. I kept saying, "Oh my God this is too much." Could there ever be too much beauty? I couldn't possibly capture a fraction of the experience so I stopped clicking, and then I saw the wizard. We often miss important details when we're taking in the ''whole picture" or worse, going through life with blinders on.

Did you notice him? If you scroll up, he's sitting by the rocks. It was Easter Sunday and I didn't expect to see a live Easter bunny, but there he was chowing down and oblivious to me. I moved closer expecting him to dart in the bushes as usual, but he didn't. That's when I knew he was the "wizard" or spiritual teacher. In the Native American and shamanic traditions rabbits teach us about fear.


When rabbit comes to you, it's a gift to examine your fears and what's holding you back. Facing and overcoming our fears is how we grow spiritually. Rabbits are gentle, timid creatures whose message is about being gentle and compassionate with ourselves. He looked right at me as if to ask, "What are you afraid of?"  I had to admit, I was sick with fear that my beloved feral cat Domino was going to die soon. He'd been injured and his limp getting worse. An older battle weary feral  can't survive long outdoors without help. We'd slipped some antibiotics into his food but then he'd disappear and miss a meal or three. After the rabbit finally dashed, cottontail flashing, I felt better but sensed I'd glimpsed only the first onionskin layer of lessons and that more teachings from nature and animals waited in the wings. An older Japanese couple strolled past and drank in the view. The magic spell was over and I made my way up the hill towards the labyrinth.



To be continued tomorrow....