October 08th, 2021

Maynely Positive Inc.


Be the Sapling.
Flexible, Sturdy, Ancestral, Future and Growing.


by Amy Mayne Robinson on October 8th 2021
My heart and soul met up with a cherished friend at the Descanso Gardens yesterday. It had been years since I last saw her. She moved across the country, and then again to Michigan and finally arrived back in Southern California. What a gift to hug her and feel her body up against mine in the parking lot under cloudy grey skies. We shed enough energy to light up the day with our embrace. Making up for the times we had experienced being apart. She helped me through my dad’s hospitalizations, she mailed care packages that arrived when the skies were the darkest and phoned when she needed me. 
Here we were, meeting where our friendship started, in gardens. Kindergarten school gardens. Hopeful were we to teach mini me’s how to compost, talk nicely to plants, respect cut wooden stumps turned into chairs for an outdoor classroom and learn lessons from seeds. 
Our conversation sauntered up and down like the Monarch that followed us.  We walked through The Redwoods and The Oaks. Masking up as a company was holding a retreat for its employees. We watched grown adults tap into their inner child as they almost skipped  on a scavenger hunt for plants. It was a team building exercise. We pointed one group to the place we thought we saw artichokes.  
We waited and looked  for breezes to tell us secrets. We talked about our children, our youth and she was gifted a piece of bark by a pre-verbal baby walking with his grandparents. We talked about being old. We dreamt about sitting on this bench in twenty years. We were.
Then we saw it.
All words failed. The energy in the grove was electric. The bamboo cage built with masterful, simplistic beauty and intention held the promise of peace. The magic of survival. The mystery of life and the implantation of ghosts that carry onward in this priceless sapling. It had survived. It was and will send a message to those that wander off the path and stay within the ever smaller still path that flows towards the growing force that holds its totem of divination in its seeds. The seeds are likened to the Buddhist Eightfold Path. Their seeds can predict the coming winter length. A poignant gift from the Japanese town of Heiwa. Heiwa is the Japanese word for peace.    (see photo for reference)
My friend and I walked a little slower towards the end of our visit. Not wanting to part. A gust of wind hugged us as if to say we will never part. We hugged goodbye. I sat in my car and felt the fullness of life rise up in my being.  The awe of friendship and the lessons of the past, all fueling me onward to continue up the hill of life. I too can be like the Persimmon seed. I too can carry the message of Heiwa.



Amy Mayne Robinson C.Ht
323-536-2963
www.maynelypositive.com

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