Meet Mrs . B.R. Cant , the large pink rose shrub behind the purple cone flowers. This was taken in'12. After 3 years of not pruning she is now so large she has taken over Penelope to the left, who is huge herself. I did my second Meditation of today under her limbs in the midst of pruning her. Yes she is so large I can sit on my " garden buddy" under her branches. It is now after 8 PM and I came through another day of the fast a happy- hungry woman. I admit, I thought for a few seconds how I could call working with this monster size, half deadwood rose all afternoon I could call it " hard labor" and have some water. But then this calm came over me and I gazed thru her branches and saw lots of Jonquils of all sorts I hadn't seen in years. A close Baha'i friend of mine and I dug these up on a trip to special Daffodil fields at a old homestead in the country. As I saw them, heard the birds singing, a breeze on my face I just went into meditation instead of going in for water. After a rainy morning of my prayers and morning meditation, falling back asleep with Penny as I was I was reading, I sat down at my computer to add quotes and books to my Baha'i Page A Robin came up to me at the window, seeming to say" Come Out, Come out- did you notice? The rain has stopped, just like in The Secret Garden. I slipped into my slippers and went out on to the porch and sure enough it was clear and warm. What a wonderful gift from God on a fast day in the middle of record cold days! As I worked my way in on this huge ( 10' x 8' tall ) antique rose shrub I came to a tangle of large old dead limbs. I kept thinking about finding Baha'u'llah- the journey that led me there and the last 20 years as a Baha'i. Often over the years I've had to clear out a lot of " dead wood" from how I perceived different aspects of the faith. Sometimes When Penelope and Mrs. Cant entwine their limbs it beautiful- sometimes it just makes a mess. The same with my combining my past spiritual paths with my current one. I'd didn't finish with the rose- I'm still trying to figure out where to cut back- how much of what I think will be beautiful will actually prevent me from being able to weed underneath this summer and not be quite so beautiful. I also have lots of dead stuff that I need to haul over to the woods to compost down over time. Today I came to realize the same is true on my spiritual- Baha'i path.
Even more clearly I see that this fast is helping me work at clearing and beautifying and strengthening my love of Baha'u'llah. I feel the quote I added today is appropriate here now.