Vines: 10 May 2009

Dear Friends,

It felt right to change the title of this blog to “Awakenings” (though the web address remains the same). After all, as noted in the description on the left, what is written here seeks to invite us to ponder and discover how the sacredness of all that surrounds us and how the Sacred One connects and intersects with our life. In our contemplation of what we see and experience as we seek deeper meaning and spiritual comfort, nourishment and growth on our journey I believe we all experience some level of new awareness in heart and soul. Sometimes it may be barely noticeable but at times there are great “Ah Ha!” moments – our own awakenings and epiphanies.

A good many years ago, as a novice gardener, I noticed a vine of some sort growing and taking up much space in the vegetable garden. It grew so quickly and appeared to send out new shoots from its massive root system almost daily. It was really difficult to keep this vine under control and soon it threatened the growth and very life of the tender vegetables plants despite my continuing attempts to “weed it out”.

Way back in the 1950’s my grandmother had another vine. This one was growing on a trellis on the south side of her house. It also flourished and brought forth beautiful flowers upon which I caught sight of the first hummingbird I had ever seen. Grandmother had deliberately planted this vine and trained it to climb the trellis. It provided nourishment – for the hummingbirds that frequently visited its flowers, for the eyes of the beholders through its beautiful and colorful display, and for this young child who first awakened to the interplay and inter-connectedness of nature.

This weekend the gospel (John 15:1-8) is a snippet of a much longer discourse and in the piece we read today, we learn about vines and branches – Jesus the true vine, nurtured so to speak by the Ultimate, Sacred “vine grower”, and we in turn the branches. And fruitful branches at that when we remain faithful in following our Sacred Gardener and grow to be our authentic selves, casting off (or pruning away) all that binds us to hiding behind our false selves – ego, power, control, arrogance, etc. Not an easy or particularly painless task given our society’s push toward achieving success (defined in many ways) in our own right. And once again this too is a life-long journey for there are people, places and things – even ourselves – that will attempt to obstruct us along the way in our search for our true selves – who we really are and who our Sacred Creator intends us to be. There will be those who entice us with the “right/proper” way to be and live and worship…by their standards, because of their status, in the name of their rules, and in the process creating an either/or dilemma for us – one in which we may be drawn away from growing as a branch on and finding nourishment and meaning from the “true vine” into a game of “following the leader” of human construct. Hmm… The choice is ours…who shall we follow? Which vine do we choose?

Peace on the Journey