Broaden the Size of Your Back Porch – Back Porch Tales Part 4 of 7

My early girlhood was spent wandering the woods, never facing any greater danger than a bout with poison ivy. The thought of being afraid never once entered my mind until the name Betty Jean Necessary was splashed across the news of my small town.

“Depart not from the path which fate has you assigned.”
- Chinese Fortune Cookie

Introduction:

When I was eleven, a girl of my own age, Betty Jean Necessary, was tragically murdered while walking in the woods. I was so traumatized that I no longer indulged in my favorite pastime of exploring without great fear. Years later, I decided it was time to broaden the size of my back porch. I drove to parks and other places of interests. Following my instincts and inner wisdom, not only did I feel safe, I found that each aspect of nature had a wonderful story to share. Please enjoy the fourth part in my series of Deb’s Back Porch Tales.

May 1, 1999 – Elkmont CampgroundBeginning of Trailhead of James Creek Trail to Jakes Gap
In Great Smoky Mountains

Love will indeed find a way in spite all obstacles just as this mini-waterfall has found a way to meander in and around all these natural obstacles. That is the main message and wisdom of this beauty spot of nature. Your eyes are becoming more and more open, your spirit more and more aware. That is a good thing. This water falling is not concerned for what is the outcome of its traveling along its given path. It simply moves as it feels it should. Even so, don’t be overly concerned for your destination. Concentrate more on all the lessons inherent in your blessed journey. Journey in peace and enter this path with our blessings.

May 1, 1999
James Creek Trail to Jakes Gap in Great Smoky Mountains

Just as these four trees manage to grow and cling to the side of this hill and flourish in the doing of this, so should you be tenacious through life. When your inner wisdom (i.e., your intuition and instincts) give you the message to enact a certain set of actions, you should let no one discourage you from this path. No matter how loving the intentions are of family and friends, their suggestions that your journey-ings might be fraught with peril is not a gift you should accept. Be not swayed by their worries for your safety. If God commands, your only choice is to obey with head held high and heart fully strengthened. If God commands, your safety net is assured. He lays down a golden path of safety upon which to place your feet. As the 23rd Psalm from the King James Version of the Holy Bible expresses so beautifully:

1: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3: He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.  (King James Version of the Holy Bible)

May 1, 1999 – White Baneberry
James Creek Trail to Jakes Gap in Great Smoky Mountains

You can find beauty in all places, even in ditches. Thank you for noticing us and not simply passing us by. The combination of the white-as-snow flower, brilliant green leaves, and the decaying brown leaves makes a striking contrast for sure. The message is that you can find beauty in all places and in all people if you only look closely enough and maintain an open heart and an open mind. If you look deep into the eyes and smile of each person, the Christ Consciousness will come shining through. Treat each person that you encounter, young and old, as if he or she was Christ Jesus in disguise. In other words, be gentle with all people. Be kind. Be patient. Be compassionate. Have a sense of humor. With your students, rain love down on them from deep in your heart. When their actions test your patience, get quiet for a moment and seek help from God to overcome this moment of adversity and disharmony or noise with harmony and love. Prior to the students entering the classroom each period, take a few moments to renew your commitment to truly make your classroom a safe zone for all. Don’t be tolerant of bad behavior. Be firm about that. However, affirm the goodness inherent in each student as a person worthy of your love and compassion. That is the wisdom of this scene we wish to share with you.

May 1, 1999 – Yellow Trillium
James Creek Trail to Jakes Gap in Great Smoky Mountains

We greet you with great joy. Your ever-probing eyes caught sight of us off the trail when many are those who passed us by without seeing. You are becoming more awake and aware of nature’s true wonder and beauty. That is a good thing. You are living and bearing truth to the awareness that until you are already being grateful for the abundance of blessings you already possess, you cannot fit yourself for more. The reverse of this is also true. As you increasingly become grateful for all the blessings you experience in life, the more you open yourself to the Universe piling additional blessings upon you. The more you continue the forays into the various beauty spots of nature and open yourself to plant, animal, and mineral wisdom, the more flowing, joyous, and blessed is your life. Walk this journey with our blessings. We celebrate your graduation from one level of earth school to another. Go in peace!

May 1, 1999 – White Trillium
James Creek Trail to Jakes Gap in Great Smoky Mountains

Please notice how these four white-flowered Trilliums are in different stages of plant growth. One is wilting fast, parts of two others are bowing over on their way to a slow demise. The one on the right is at its beautiful peak, strong, vital, flowing with good health. Just so, you and your fellow mankind and womankind are in various stages of growth. Some of those stages are obvious to the eye, such as the various stages of aging. But a far deeper and more important similarity is the growth that is not always apparent to the naked eye. That similarity is the various stages of spiritual, emotional, and psychological growth. As for you, we would liken you to the flower on the right. You too are at your peak – young, vital, energetic, brimming with joy in your wonderful life, home, job, career, family, and friends. It is purely up to you if your peak period will last hours, days, weeks, months, years, or decades. If you choose to continue aligning yourself with your higher path, if you choose to continue brimming with daily gratitude for the ever-present guidance you receive and the abundance flowing to you from a Universe aching to bestow abundance and perfect health on all mankind, if you continue to try to live your life as full of integrity, kindness, and compassion as you can, and if you continue to maintain your wonderful sense of humor and your natural ability to laugh deep and hard at what amuses you – you will indeed be able to maintain yourself at peak condition for many years to come. That is the game plan for you. We applaud your sense of humility as you strive to always remember that everything you do is for the glory of God! Spread that message not with words but by walking your thoughts, by setting a true example. Walk in peace.

May 1, 1999
James Creek Trail to Jakes Gap in Great Smoky Mountains

When you first noticed this scene, your first humorous thought was that the roots of this tree, clinging to the sides of this somewhat hollowed-out bank, looked as if it were eyeglasses looking out on the world. The other aspect you paid more limited attention to was that this picture is an ideal differentiation of the contrast between light and dark. The rays of the sun are shining radiantly down on what is above ground or hill level. But at this time of day, the strong rays of the sun do not reach what lies hidden behind the lens of your root-made eyeglasses. Who or what is doing the looking out on the world and what does it see when it gazes wistfully at all who pass? It is the invisible eye of those less fortunate. It is the hard-to-detect eye of a student who cloaks his or her confusion and fear in harsh words and actions. It is the ones who cover themselves in worry, depression, or doubts of the ever-present love of God. It is all those who imagine themselves out-0f-line with harmony in any fashion whatsoever. Your goal in life and the goal of everyone in life who wishes to truly contribute to the solution and not be part of the problem is to find a way to shine the rays of love upon them. Find a way to make them feel safe to come out of hiding, finally ready to show their face to the ever-present love of God. It is part of your destiny to take upon your shoulders this gentle burden. You came to this Earth with the goal to be an agent of healing in every way you are capable. These walks into nature are part of your training ground to further make you ready to do this job in the highest way possible. Learn all you can from books, from nature, from the people you encounter who hold synchronistic messages for you, from all the other ways that present themselves to you. All of these together will further make you ready to take on the next stages of the job you came here to do. We wish you peace of heart and mind as you walk your path of light. Shalom!

If the scenes we view in nature could talk, what would they say? This is Part 4 of a 7-part series. View the slideshow of the pictures described above: Back Porch Tales Slideshow

Resources:

Chinese Fortune Cookie

Inspired by Michael J. Road’s book titled Talking with Nature: Sharing the Energies and Spirit of Trees, Plants, Birds, and Earth

23rd Psalm from King James Version of Holy Bible