“Before Enlightenment, Chop Wood, Carry Water,

After Enlightenment, Chop Wood, Carry Water.”

~Chinese Proverb

The Big Guy and I are going to be visiting some of his family for the next week for Thanksgiving.  Part of this involved getting the cargo/topper for the back of his truck out of the back yard.  We have this Bougainvillea that grew in the corner of the front yard in front of the gate to the side-yard.  We figured we’d cut a few branches and get it out…

FOUR HOURS OF YARD WORK LATER…

~sigh~  The plant had grown in on itself and there were brambles and tangles and thorns like some nearly impenetrable wall of purple flower bearing thorn filled doom.  But, we did it!  I am tired and sweaty and dirty and yet, paradoxically, I feel cleaner and (on some levels) more energized that I have in weeks.

There was something deeply powerful about taking that tangled thorny bush, whose beautiful and placid outer layer hid a mass of dead and dieing thorny branches, and taking it apart and hauling it away; and behind it was the gate.  Not just a sense of accomplishment but a living metaphor for getting things done and dealling with obstacles and painful problems.  Some useful triggers for my visualizations in the future!  I also found a couple of potential wands, but I need to do some research on Bougainvilia to see if I can really use these wands for my regular work or if they will be a special ocasion item… or the ingredient for some new charm or spell.

I have a feeling that the sense of power and metaphor and magic I felt during this unexpected bit of hard labor both culminated something I needed, and will serve as a useful tool and experience in the relatively near future.  I will have to do some work with the Tarot and some meditation this week…

Peace, and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Pax

PS- Please go to the upper right-hand corner of this page and click on the Links! link, I am trying to build my resource pages and am inviting any and all to post some suggestions for more links and more categories!  (It’s very much a work in progress right now, sorry for the mess!)