Sunday, June 5, 2016

Avondale on Hudson....A Sacred Passage

Avondale on Hudson
A Sacred Passage

Light filters silently around me
Sifting through
Spindly branches
Leaves bright with chartreuse
And marigolds that golden the air with soft velvet ruffles.
Softest beams weave in and out of long trailing tree limbs and dapple dalmation onto the slatted gray table before me.
Roughened by time and weathered by rain and snow and winds the table made of timber is aged yet solid.
With it linger a fragrant essence of memories
of gathered laughter,
Restful moments of contemplation
and joyful circles of friends
It is late May and these upper New York woods are rebounding from the harsh trauma of snowy winter
They surround me with resilience….
Green with vigor….
Lush with  families of hopeful younger saplings
A pot of fresh basil, a planter of pink geraniums and a large lemon on a small tree Gift this cottage hidden in the woods with wholeness and a wafting fragrance of Fresh beginnings and newness of life and
The stunning grace of raw beauty.
Below me a brook washes through the crevices of rocks and moss and roots clinging to banks and trunks and shifting silt.
It sings as it runs…..and in the softest of ways…..peace seeps into my spirit and soul.
Life lives here in this cottage in the woods.
I study the hope that surrounds me in this sanctuary of life.
Despite the snow, the winds, the floods,
These sacred elders of the plant kingdom resurrect each spring with life
And breath and arms wide open…..
They have been created to stand tall
Hosting families of birds and a thousand other creatures too hidden to see.
They have come before me, these trees of old
And they will remain to tell their story long after mine is over.
I am honored to share this space at
60 Near Road with them.
This moment of eternity,
This celebration of graduation
This merging of two families who share the goodness of the one they both love….dearly
Katrina.
A soul full of light and goodness and sensitivity
A soul who fears the darkness
But
Courageously treads it anyway.
Intentionally reaching ever reaching deeply into her spirit,
God’s spirit,
And the spirit of others.
Ever reaching for the hands of those she loves
Asking them to go with her.
To help her to see what she cannot see.
To help her to be brave
And to press ever forward,
She was created with roots that run deep,
That drink from streams of living water and cling to good soil.
She was created to stand tall
With a strong will
For the tearing down of strongholds of injustice.
And she will….
Use that will to pierce the darkness with great light.
This is a sacred passage, at a sacred moment, in a sacred place.
She has weathered the winter and spring has come again.

Dana Seale
Avondale on Hudson

May 29, 2016

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