During my forest stroll today with little Dorka I came across this stunning rhododendron, and it made me think of an exercise Father Nigel encouraged us to do in his beautiful online mass this morning. He said to list ten things that are precious to us and ten things we would like to have and comparing what would have a bigger impact on our lives - losing our blessings or gaining what we want to have...
The rhododendron is one of these blessings in my life, not just because of its beauty, but because if it didn't exist then our lives might be very different today.
It was in the last year we were living on the caravan sight, when one night I woke up to lots of shouting. Stepping outside our little caravan we called home sweet home at the time I caught a glimpse of ash blowing towards our roof and then suddenly I spotted to the right the blazing fire coming from a caravan at the end of our row... It was a long and unforgettable night, especially for the firefighters tackling the flames as one caravan set fire to the next like a domino of matchsticks. It was surreal and frightening as the fire was heading in our direction and we stood there, our feet seemingly having grown roots, helplessly observing it all unfold...
I cannot recall what happened in the next hour or two, or three... My next recollection is that of finding out the next morning that the flames were stopped from spreading onto our row, by a sturdy rhododendron bush, miraculously growing only about three pitches away from us.
I am forever grateful for this humble little plant, for shielding us and many others that night...
When I think of all the blessings in my life I could mention every single member of our very special and nutty family as one each, because never in my dreams had I imagined being surrounded by so many loving people. When I add all our friends who have been there for us and are even in these peculiar times sending their love in so many ways, by making our baby boy beautiful handmade gifts, by sending us messages of their love and support, listening to hormonal tears on occasion and just letting us know they're there; our blessings are nearer the hundreds than the original ten I set out to list...
The list, however, still does not end there. I've always loved noticing and recording life's little synchronicities that can find you in the most unexpected ways and give so much reassurance when it's most needed. In the last few weeks I've had the serendipitous fortune of connecting with a like minded soul, the kind of writer and person I aspire to be, Katalin Eszterhai. I bought one of her books in Hungary during our last visit there last year, but only had the chance to find the stillness needed to appreciate the beauty in her words during the quiet of our isolation. Her sentiments so echoed the voice of my own soul that I reached out and made contact and was fortunate enough to receive a reply, and many more inspiring letters since that day. In one of these letters Katalin signed off by writing:
'Hordozd magadon Isten áldását, akár egy jó ruhát', translating something like 'wear God's blessing, like a beautiful garment'.
The next morning I woke up and felt called to spend the first moments of my day in the company of my devotional journal ..
My heart skipped a beat when the reading for that specific day said:
'God's call upon you today is to walk in newness of life, and to put on your new life as you would put on a new garment' which I quickly underlined and smudged in the process!
There's a quiet but overwhelming joy in these moments, that I cherish and need to note down to remind myself later...
Another such peaceful blessing arrived in the form of a lilac flower just yesterday. This is the season when they are in bloom, and if you've ever taken the time to breathe in their perfume, you will agree there are no words to describe it. As our walks have become quite gentle and slow paced as of late, I take advantage of every opportunity to pause and indulge in such pleasures as this. It was no different yesterday morning, discovering a bush in our nearby forest, that was generously offering it's aromatic bundles of lilac treasures for inspection. I mentioned to Daniel that my mum had one in her beautiful garden in Hungary and how I'd like to plant one for us too.
Arriving home from that walk, I stepped out of the car and had the realisation, that right in front of our neighbour's garden there stood a beautiful tree with snow white lilac blossoms on it! I passingly mentioned to our neighbour that I would very much like to pinch a little cutting off his tree to see if it would grow in our garden. By the time I came back from my second walk with Dorka, there was a little pot of soil waiting for me outside the door with a cutting of the snow white lilac...
If this wasn't heartwarming enough, that same evening I receive a little photo update from a precious friend in Germany, the Wild Child; the photo of a beautiful lilac bush...
The icing on top of my cake is that she loves to draw and she gifted me a drawing of this special flower to decorate my blog entry:
Signing off with a heart filled with gratitude and numb fingers from typing! :) I believe it was Albert Einstein who said 'There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
I'd like to think I live my life believing everything is, and this belief has never let me down.
