My Rebecca keeps a Christmas Cactus in our living room which sets in the winter light of the southern facing windows. It has always been “off” schedule preferring to bloom at Halloween or sometimes Thanksgiving than the standard Christmastime. You could say quirky and that would cover it and a lot of what goes on here on our beloved Vashon Island.
So this year, back to the beloved cactus, it decided to not bloom at all in the Fall and what should appear now but a single blossom. Sometimes a Halloween Cactus or a Thanksgiving Cactus but now an Advent Cactus. OK, so an Advent Cactus, yes we can work with that, no problem.
And the blossom looks out in the direction of My Rebecca’s chair like a messenger with a little pink message. But it is more active than pink really, more energetic. Pink would be an understatement.
In contrast it is extremely gray outside and the rain pitterpatters on the skylights, the Big Dark has arrived in all it’s dampness. We like the natives before us hunker down in our shelters and wait it out. Our focus comes close, gone are the views of the mountains and the stars shining. Our world is small where things like a thought, or a smile or yes that single flower grow in significance.
We adapt to survive in this desert in reverse. We dwell on that thought/smile/flower longer that we would have in the expansive summertime. Now we milk every single droplet of essence to nourish ourselves and each other. And the thought/smile/flower is happy to give and it doesn’t seem diminished in any way for the giving. Maybe that’s the miracle if we need one at the moment.
Waiting smiley loves, Felipé.
🌵 🌺 🌧 🛏 📖 🌟🙏🏻💙💖
Sherie ~ thanks for checking in with us. See you next trip. Felipe.x
Yes, we know quirky. That often describes some of our amigos, right FJ? Congrats on new blossom!👏
Ken ~ quirky R Us maybe. Thanks for checking in with the blog. Looking forward to May and your visit. Felipé.
Hola, Amigo, Felipe!
You wax poetic, Marine! It’s easy to scroll back in the archives of this blog, and I did so after reading your post today. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were growing some smokeable greenery out there on that fertile soil of yours. 🙂 Your writing has “evolved” over all those 1786 messages you’ve shared with us fans. And that’s something I think you should take pleasure in. And, if I believed in “coincidences”, seeing Biggo Amigo Ken chiming in here today, would be another “bloom” on that Christmas Cactus.
We’ve got your missing sunshine in abundance here in the Heartland today. The thermometer still reminds us that everything is frozen out there, but it’s one of those “feels good” things we can enjoy at no cost. Like reading your blog!!
SF,
PFJ
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PFJ ~ so honored to have you stop by Caminoheads and Ken also. Looking forward to you guys coming up in May. As soon as I get my hands on the new 2019 parish calendar I will write it in. Thanks for the local weather report. Sometimes sunshine is hard to imagine here in the winter but it’s not freezing, the trade off. My winter garden is creeping along, “I think I can, I think I can.” Henna made the best cornbread from our sweet corn meal. I will have to send you some for your consideration. OK, still have to write today’s blogpost. Get cracking Felipé!
Hi Filipe:
Your handler here! Smiling right back at you! Remembering all those long ago Christmas’s past when Kelly’s Mom’s Christmas cactus would bloom to high heavens in their northwest facing “fishbowl” of windows, facing the loyal Rocky Mountains and solitude of Terry Lake! That lady could get anything to grow, including a grapefruit tree from a mere seed that grew to well over 8 feet tall. Only once do I ever remember it bearing fruit when a renegade bee found its way in and did its pollination duty. Quite a treat to have fresh grapefruit in the dead of winter! But it sure made the “dead” of winter seem more tolerable in CO! Thankful for those little miracles now! Sweet memories to you too!
Yes dear, thank God for those little miracles and little memories. And thanks for checking in with us. Drinking strong coffee and working up to writing today’s blogpost. Hello to Kelly. Felipe.x
Hola Felipe,
Nature is never confused… I think this cactus is more like a “prophet”, coming to tell what will happen next…
This reminded me too something John O’Donohue often talked/wrote about, helping us to notice that all the life that blossoms in Spring was conceived in the bleakness of the wintertime. And as you know, with the corn seeds, “the plant” is seen in the spring and summer, but the seed needed to go out the darkness of the soil for a bit of time before.
A piece of John O’Donohue’s book, Anam Cara…
“An old Zen mystic said that when one flower blooms it is spring everywhere. When the first innocent, infantlike flower appears on the earth, one senses nature stirring beneath the frozen surface. There is a lovely phrase in Gaelic, “ag borradh”, that means there is a quivering life about to break forth.”
Frozen-not too frozen Love,
Cris
Hey Cris, always good. Yes, I should give the Advent Cactus more credit. But for me really it started with gratitude for my normal mind would be disappointed with only one. But that is all that is needed in this season. It has no competition, there are no fields of flowers at this time to confuse things. It is all very lean, like the Christ child maybe, singular and simple.
I am reading new O’Donahue book now, Walking in Wonder, I think it is. Talked to Jim yesterday. He was so happy that he and Gloria got to see you there in Buenos Aires. Thanks for giving them the tour. Off to write today’s post, Felipé.x