A Personal Symbology

*

A Personal Symbology

At various times

in my life

I have been aware 

of powerful symbols

that seem to represent

the essence of an experience

or to succinctly capture

a prevailing emotion or feeling

At times when

significant people in my life

have passed through the veil

I have been visited by Brahminy kites

beautiful brown winged raptors

And I have also seen splendid rainbows

On the morning 

of my Mother in Law's death

I was driving my youngest to school

when the biggest and brightest rainbow

I have ever seen

arced across our town

in a vivid embrace

On the morning of her funeral

I took a walk by myself

and saw the same rainbow

and then again 

as we drove to Auckland Airport

to fly back home to Australia

a rainbow seemed to follow the car

These past few weeks

I have seen the Brahminy kites 

soaring the skies

and just a few days ago
and then again today
out over the ocean

the Rainbow of Hope

It may be a co-incidence

It may be synchronicity

It may be purposeful

It may be none of these things

It doesn't really matter

What does matter is that the symbol

is a container

a vessel that is able to hold

the feelings, emotions and energy

linked to the experience 

and of something more than the experience

The symbol holds all that is ineffable

beyond the scope of words

A symbol speaks in a language

more powerful than words

its magic and poignancy 

reach into the unconscious

and connect us to deeper realms

to deeper layers of feelings

and experiencing

They create a bridge

between the conscious world 

and that of the unconscious

and I believe 

of the Universal consciousness

Symbols yield a powerful connection 

and knowing

a communication that is intuitive 

Do you have 

special symbols

that have become a part 

of your personal symbology...

*

On being Centred

*

Neither up nor down...

I went out for a late afternoon walk yesterday and when crossing the road noticed this marking on a lamp post.

I imagine that the painted arrows serve some purpose for either the electricity company or maybe the telephone lines people.

But what the image made me instantly think of was:

The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up;
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.

And from there my mind meandered back in time to this:

Halfway down the stairs
is a stair where i sit.
there isn't any other stair quite like it.
i'm not at the bottom,
i'm not at the top;
so this is the stair where I always stop.
Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up
And it isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head.
It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!

Poem by A.A. Milne ~ Illustration by E.H. Shepard

~

... and then I mused on this place of neither up nor down
and being half way up and not really anywhere
and I thought that it is rather like that position
from where we sometimes climb to highs
and sometimes fall to lows
but the place to where we can return
to retrieve a sense of equanimity.


The symbol made me think that:

to be happy or content
does not imply
that we do not
experience pain and loss
or exaltation and joy


to be balanced
doesn't mean
that we do not waver
and


to be centred
doesn't mean
that we do not oscillate



When jostled, buffeted
or buoyed and bounced
by the ebb and flow of life
we can learn to return
to that place half way up,
half way down,
neither up nor down



We can find ourselves once again
and reclaim those feelings
of serenity and calm




What do you use
as your ballast
when you feel off centre?

Oh Happy Days

*