Hello friends! I hope this finds you well today. I think of you often with warm regards and gratitude for our shared lives. Here is a little story for you from my heart today.
One day the whisper came as it always does, like a gentle breeze from the mystery of the inner presence of love. It's funny how these little life lessons come with great importance that echo through time. Usually at first they seem so small and insignificant to my rational mind and the great temptation pulls like a tug of war to disregard the moment as just this or that. But the wise one within beckons me to sit down as a little child and listen with an open heart.
So it came to pass that I saw a flash of vision in my imagination where a beautiful hand reached out to me from heaven and gave me a peach. I began to question such an odd seeming gift from the hand of heaven. What could this be about? So my mind began to run in circles while I gazed at the peach, as though somehow, the analyst I had become could comprehend the mind of God in such a gift as this. I saw myself turning the peach in my hand while noticing its beautiful color with its luxurious covering and gentle scent. I cut into the peach and studied its juicy tender layers and I felt the hard rough ridges of its inner seed that was so contrary to its fruitful softness. I sat there in my imagination baffled by what this all meant. And then I heard the words like a gentle breeze of loving presence, "Eat the peach." When I heard the words I laughed. "Eat the peach?" and so I did in this little caveat of a story within myself. When I bit into the peach it sent chills all through my being. It was so sweet to the taste that it sizzled in my mouth and juices so rich in flavor ran down my chin because I could not contain the overflow of goodness. I instantly felt the nourishing invigoration and energy of its life flow. And I began to laugh and laugh and laugh.
On that day, so many years ago, heaven gave me a peach.
Would God do such a thing in the midst of such seriousness of life?
A story is told of St Augustine as he was on his death bed being asked of his final wishes. And it is said, all he longed for was a peach.
It is no wonder that the ancient wisdom of the scriptures say to us "Taste and see that the Lord is good."
When I was a child the world seemed as technicolor to me. My senses were alive with wonder and delight. But as I grew older, the fortress of my rational mind pressed against this early tenderness and the world became less palatable and more intellectual with categories of thinking and patterns of meaning rather than the visceral experience of life that leads to delight.
On that day I knew that I would never really know a peach by studying it or wondering what it all meant to be given such a beautiful thing and trying to find some importance in it all. The only way I could really know a peach and allow its purpose to come to fruition was to taste and see that it was good. And Oh my, it was good!
It seems to me that peaches are everywhere around us in all the beauty of creation, beckoning us to taste and experience the goodness of God even in the midst of our suffering struggles. Yet so often we run right past them and think "oh yea that's a peach." I could only begin to wonder if God so longs for us to fully realize through experience, the goodness of his presence that can only be known through deeply encountering him in the inner chambers of our lives and allowing love to nourish our foundations rather than intellect and fear. To become as little children again in this way, seems to be the life long journey of homecoming to what matters most in life.
When the whispering words return to me, "eat the peach," I still smile today while taking a breath and soaking it all in. The older I grow the more I realize the profound graces in these seemingly small encounters with Love in the sacred circle of life.
Today my friends, I hope you will eat a peach!