Transformations Revealed

Hearing about the decline of the Monarch Butterflies we decided to plant milkweed in our front yard as a way to support their food source.  It took one or two years for the plants to take hold, but now we have four established plants... and we have monarch caterpillars and butterflies enjoying our labor!

The milkweed plants have beautiful red, yellow, and orange flowers with elongated green leaves.  What I didn't realize is how much the caterpillars would eat!  They DEVOUR the plants down to the stems!

Where do you get nourishment?
(Photo: Monarch Caterpillars - Larry Gardepie)

At times we have had adults and children stopping by and watching the Monarchs flitting about... and then notice the caterpillars crawling all over the plants.  One child asked me the first year, "You don't mind them eating the plants?"

That question stopped me: we also have fruit trees and vegetable plants where I become upset when the insects take over and denude the plants.  Why not the milkweed?  Why am I not upset at the Monarchs? 

How much do you share what you have?
(Photo: Milkweed and Monarch Caterpillars - Larry Gardepie)

I guess my response to the child ("No, I don't mind") depended on context:  the Monarchs need our help to survive and the milkweed was planted for that purpose.  Plus, I had no other use for the milkweed except for being connected to the natural cycle of life.

I was growing the oranges, tomatoes, basil, watercress, arugula, chard, and rosemary, on the other hand, for our dinner table. 

What happens when you are transformed?
(Photo: Milkweed Flowers and Monarch Butterfly - Larry Gardepie)

A child's innocent question invited me to consider when and how I share my abundance.  And... that is where our transformation begins:

• Our ability to ask or listen to a question;
• Our openness to honestly reflect on our experiences; and,
• Our willingness to change.

What transformation or metamorphosis have you experienced lately? 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

Beauty Beyond

My father grew up on a Midwestern farm.  He loved to garden and had a wonderful way with plants.  One day we were walking by a house in downtown Salinas where the front yard had a variety of plants that looked overgrown and unkempt.  I made a comment about how ugly it looked.

Dad suggested that I not judge others by what I see.  We don't know their circumstances and just because their yard didn't look like ours didn't mean it was ugly, bad, or wrong. 

How do you measure beauty?
(Photo: Blarney Castle Gardens, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

Decades later I still remember his comments.  His words and the lesson were important, but it was the manner in how he guided my young mind that stays with me:

• His words were non-judgmental.
• His approach was gentle.
• He spoke with understanding and compassion.

This familial memory came to mind while walking through the cultured gardens of Blarney Castle.  The grounds were beautiful and well-manicured, but were they any more attractive than that Salinas garden years earlier?

Are there other ways to see beauty?
(Photo: Blarney Castle Gardens, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

We rely on what we see or hear... but, I must remind myself, there is always so much more that we haven't seen or heard!  For instance, when you walk into a room and see two people deep in conversation, do you sometimes create a complete story about the fragment of conversation you overheard?  Our minds rapidly fill in the gaps with what we already know!

Do we ever stop and wonder about the conversation that happened before we entered the room or after we have passed by? It's as if everything starts and stops with us and our experiences! 

Does beauty change over time?
(Photo: Blarney Castle Gardens, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

In reflective moments like this I am reminded of H. W. Mann's phrase "Beauty is more than skin deep."  It's a suggestion not to be fooled by the surface level of what we see, hear, or experience.  It's a hint to spend more time looking for the Beauty Beyond.

As we engage with people this week, let's cultivate our questions and feed our curiosity about what is Happening Beyond us.  Let us settle not for the story we create but dig deeper to Understand Beyond what we know.

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

 

 

Crevices of Life: Where Life Grows

Nature is tenacious!  Have you noticed that plants grow in the most unexpected places?  I remember one of my OH (ornamental horticulture) instructors defined weeds as plants that are growing in places where we don't want them.

In looking up the definition of weeds, though, I found several less flattering definitions:

 "A valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop."

 "Any undesirable or troublesome plant, especially one that grows profusely 
  where it is unwanted."

How do we define beauty?
(Photo: flowering plant clinging to a brick wall,
Dublin, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

Wow!  A living member of creation that we define as valueless, wild, to the exclusion or injury (of what is desired), undesirable, troublesome, and unwanted.

Where have we heard those words recently?  Maybe how we look at people who find themselves without a permanent home?  Maybe how we see or fear immigrants in our community?  Maybe how we encounter or label family members who have a different outlook on or rhythm of life?

Where do we belong?
(Photo: delicate plant clinging to a rock wall,
Donegal, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

It begs a question of us:

Who are the "weeds" in our lives -- those people we set apart as valueless, wild, undesirable, troublesome, and unwanted?

Or, in other words, those people we exclude for fear of injury to ourselves and our way of life.

Depending on our answer, another question may surface:  Why?

What do you cling to?
(Photo:  flowering plant clinging to a retaining wall,
Waterford, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

If anything, maybe we can learn from nature:  be tenacious and bloom where you are planted!  Rather than seeing undesirables in the homeless and immigrant communities, can we reach into the crevices of our life and see sacred beauty, worth, and value?  Can we nurture and encourage?  Can we accept and include?

All of these questions require us to reflect deeply on our own separation and pain -- times when we might have been identified as unwanted or undesirable.  In addition, we are invited into dialogue about areas where we feel vulnerable, alone, and not valued.

Are you willing to reflect with me on the weeds in your life? 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

 

 

Another Irish Musing: Life Imitates...

Have you noticed that when we get away from our normal surroundings or out of our comfort zone:

• We pay attention a little more. 
• We notice things that are not familiar.
• We don't necessarily know what to say or do. 

It is as if our autopilot is turned off, and we are required to Respond rather than React.

This is one reason why I enjoy traveling outside my neighborhood and city -- I am challenged to think and feel!

What do you imitate?
(Photo:  Entrance to Pub-Gallery,
Belfast, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

An Irish Pub -- of all places! -- helped me to come to terms with expressions of familiarity and differences.  This particular pub had an outdoor art gallery filled with provocative paintings:  that is, the art pieces provoked feelings of closeness and intimacy to what I knew and understood... AND... they invited a new way of seeing or understanding the world.

For instance, as we entered the outdoor patio, the four corners displayed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Conquest or Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death).  Looking closer at the people on the horses were figures of Kim Jong Un (representing Pestilence), Ali Khamenei (War), Donald Trump (Famine), and Vladimir Putin (Death).

What are you hungry for?
(Photo:  Great Famine Stained Glass Window,
Belfast City Hall - Larry Gardepie)

Whether I agreed with or believed in the artist's message didn't matter: the art was an expression of another person's views that provoked me to think. 

The Belfast City Hall was another location filled with artwork and stained-glass windows.  One window in particular provided color to the Great Famines of the mid-1800s - part of the Irish history that lives on in their stories and ballads.

It was a reminder that our stories and histories intertwine as we live daily what is familiar... AND... move through Life's travels and broader realities. 

How do you add color to this world?
(Photo:  Stained Glass Windows, St. Patrick's Cathedral,
Dublin, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

The openness to experience and understand another perspective may be part of Life's Goal: recognizing that our limited time and place can only be expanded by listening, dreaming, and accepting Other.

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

 

 

Another Irish Musing: Seeing Anew

Our Dublin local guide was excited about showing us this one window in a posh neighborhood of Ireland's capital city.  We were in for a surprise!

Apparently, a stuffed lion showed up in this €1,000,000 ($1.7 million USD) flat a few weeks back.  After all, how many people have a lion in the window?!

When do you expect to see the unusual?

(Photo: "How Much is that Doggy
in the Window?" - Larry Gardepie) 

What she didn't expect was the tiny dog in the window.  At first the dog also looked stuffed... a strange juxtaposition against the lion ... but, after a few minutes, the dog suddenly moved!

It made for a fun moment on our final full day in Ireland, the land of leprechauns, faeries, and "wee spirits":  what we expect to see is not always what we see!

How can you see something anew?

(Photo:  Blarney Castle through a Hole
in the Obelisk - Larry Gardepie)

This can be said of each moment of our day:

• We make plans... and then the plans need to change;
• We create To Do Lists... and nothing seems to get done;
• We focus our energy on helping others... and they hardly seem to notice.

Similar to the doggie in the window, the question becomes one of presence and paying attention.  The dog was so focused on people passing by that we misunderstood what we were seeing.  Once the dog moved, our understanding shifted.

Can you reach across what divides?

(Photo: "Hand from the Sea" sculpture, 
Waterford, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

The "Hand from the Sea" sculpture at the confluence of the Johns and Suir Rivers in Waterford, Ireland, depicts a hand reaching out from the sea and another hand reaching from nature (or the sky).  One is intertwined with seaweed and fish; the other has branches and birds.

It shows that we can come from different parts of the world... intertwined with our familial or cultural importances... and still touch one another.

This is what is important... the newness... the unexpected... the reaching out and touching another being.  It's the meeting where We-They are joined In-The-Moment.

Are you ready to See Anew this week? 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting