CRYSTAL TAPESTRY

Thanksgiving – the name of this holiday offers us an invitation.  Wherever we are, by ourselves or with others, we’re invited to join in a communal giving of thanks – honoring and enjoying nourishing gifts from the earth, celebrating the abundance of life.  Sharing gratitude weaves fibers of connection between us.  Being grateful is an openhearted receiving, an honoring of the givers and the gifts – of nourishing foods, friendship, healing energies, creative ideas, hearty belly laughs.  Giving thanks opens space for beauty to be seen, for love to be felt, for the extraordinary to come alive in the ordinary moments of our everyday lives.

In the spirit of Thanks-Giving, here’s a sharing of the discovery of unexpected gifts on a wintry morning several years ago:

CRYSTAL TAPESTRY   •   JoAnne Dodgson, Ed.D.

www.pathwaysforhealing.net

As the orange glowing sun rose up over the horizon, a hint of magic filled the air. A chattering flock of ravens surfed wildly on the winds.  They soared to the ground to hold council in the frozen meadow beside the house. I wondered what they were up to besides calling me out to play.

I ventured outside and into the woods, delighted by the beauty of the vibrant green forest dusted with sparkling white snow and embraced by the brilliant blue sky.  Jasmine, my canine friend, romped passionately through the underbrush.  She stuck her nose inside animal tracks imprinted in the snow to see just who had been by and how long ago and if there still was a chance of catching up.

When I stopped beside a creek to breath in the deep woodsy silence, I noticed the thread of a spider’s web swaying slightly in the breeze.   Hanging in a graceful arc between the branches of a cedar tree, the delicate fiber was lined with snowflakes.  Each individual snowflake was clearly visible, such intricate starry crystals of diverse sizes and shapes gathered along a shimmering thread.  Enchanted by this discovery, I looked around with more discerning eyes to discover the woods was filled with snowflake-lined spider webs.

Sparkling threads were strung from broad cedar branches to the tips of the neighboring pines.  Glittering fibers were woven around the spindly bushes beside the icy creek.  Ornate strings of tiny snowflakes stretched all the way across the path, crystalline fibers reaching out and connecting tree to tree to tree to tree.  Immersed inside the weaving of this tapestry of life, I reached out with shimmering fibers like those among the trees, connecting heart to heart to heart to heart.