Benefaction and Grace

The Universe has seen fit to bless us with warm, almost tropical weather (for the Cariboo!) for the past couple of weeks. Even during the worst onslaught of the Bug's war on my body, I could not help being aware of it.

It is strange. I'm not sure what to make of it. Snow, which was piled up against fences, which had been ploughed and left in huge piles, has completely melted. Mud is the name of the game at the moment, with long swaths of Ice still lying about...making walking slippery and treacherous.

The warm Southerly Winds blow, sometimes with a ferocity which calls to me.  Come out, Wind moans, come out and feel my balmy greeting.  I speak to you of Spring...can you not sense it?

But it is the middle of January, I answer. I cannot fully trust your temperate and hospitable message. But I will enjoy it, for a time, and with great gratitude.

Gingerly, I walk about in the garden, avoiding the melting sheets of persistent Ice. I see the tips of Bulbs, bright, perky green...they seem full of wonder at seeing daylight so early in the Season. I check the Shrubbery. I see, with delight and foreboding, buds beginning to swell.


My greatest desire is to go out and rake the detritus from the lawn and gardens. I want to start seeds, I want to order mulch, I want to begin the gardening season. This is the message contained in the very gentle breezes from South Wind which caress my cheeks.


I am wary, however. Last year, it was May before Snow completely melted. It is still relatively early Winter...and I feel sure North Wind will have a rebuttal to South Wind's promise. Also, the Soil is still frozen, albeit barely.


And so, instead of finding shovels, rakes, hoes and wheel barrows, I fight the urge to plunge into the garden. On the Island, I would be outside in full force, knowing any Storm would be brief and rarely dangerous to plant life, even at this time of year.



Instead of launching myself into the plant world, where I can be completely immersed into a different space and time, I wander and think about the problems associated with the World today.


I send Reiki...a small, sincere offering...to the victims of Haiti.  I send gratitude to Spirit for delivering the seventeen High School students and their ten chaperons from the Kootenays  home from Haiti, safe and sound, into the arms of their parents. I cannot begin to imagine how I would feel had I sent my child off to help build a well and a Goat farm in an impoverished country, only to watch and wait helplessly as that same country was devastated by an earthquake, barely twelve hours after their arrival.

I send gratitude on the arms of the South Wind that the World's heart has opened...has unlocked...and that Nations have come together to send aid and financial help to a country in dire need of it. 


Closer to home, I ask Spirit to help family members who lost a parent, a grandfather and a great-grandfather just last week. I know, having experienced the death of my own parents, just how devastating and strange it is when parents follow the natural order in life and die...leaving one on the front lines, so to speak. I ask for understanding and acceptance and forgiveness to be sent to my family; I ask for a lessening of the stranglehold Death holds on one's heart, splitting it wide open, leaving it ever so vulnerable.

I ask for help for Graham, who is still very ill. The Bug has attacked his bronchial tubes, swelling them and making it very difficult to breathe. I send my extreme thankfulness that the nurses and doctors at the hospital here were able to move and shift the blockages in his throat, were able to lessen the violent coughing fits which hurt so badly, and were able to help him breathe.



My prayers are taken on the arms of the soft South Wind. It is as if I can actually see the words and feelings spiral up...up...up far into the Sky...into Spirit's receptive ear.


I see an Eagle fly high above...a messenger from the Gods. I know my prayers and emotions have been received.


The weather forecast promises a few more days of this oddly warm and friendly weather. And yet, I see at the end of the forecast period that the temperatures will cool again, after this weekend.


We'll be back in cold temperatures soon; this warm interlude a distant memory.


In the meantime, I will enjoy Spirit's benefaction. The weather Gods have smiled warmly at an area of the country where Cold and Ice generally reign.


And I find it such a blessing!