Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity  

to receive it.  

—Rabindranath Tagore

 

The ability to move harmoniously and gracefully

 from one season into 

the next requires us to pay attention to nature—both the external environment 

and our own body and mind. So much welcome energy arrives with spring—as 

if to rouse us all from the cave of winter. Life force, or prana, begins to stir. The 

crocus and her friend the hyacinth make early shows in the garden. Many of us 

feel the pull to spend a little more time outdoors as the daylight hours begin to 

lengthen. It’s as if nature herself is sending us invitations to her spring dance:  

Stretch. Move. Bloom.  

For us to align with the abundant energy of spring generally requires a little 

housecleaning, both externally and internally. It’s time to lighten up the diet by 

moving toward more fresh fruits and vegetables. This would be a good time to 

sign up for your local Community Supported Agriculture project if you haven’t 

already done that. Read about the experience of investing in a Community 

Supported Agriculture (CSA) share in our Healthy Living section. For purifying 

the mind—quieting our thoughts and deepening our meditation practice—

mantra is an easy and immediately satisfying practice. Roy Eugene Davis offers 

basic instruction in his article on mantra. You can begin practicing today.  

Before the bloom, the beautiful flower and fragrance that we appreciate, an 

opening must occur. Every bloom requires letting go. We all know this. And yet, 

it is human nature to focus on the bloom and forget about the transformation 

that preceded it. When a mother holds her newborn baby in her arms, the pain 

of the birth process moves off center stage. As the child grows, there will be many 

occasions of joy and pain, transforming, growing, celebrating, and letting go. 

Yoga philosophy advises us to see the connection between pleasure and pain  

by understanding wholeness—the ground of being, our spiritual nature—that  

is beyond both. When we remember the unchanging divine essence that we  

are, we can welcome both the blossom and the breaking open that is part of it. 

Letting go is necessary to expand our capacity to receive. I have named grief love’s 

doorkeeper to remind me. 
Keeping the door open,
Ellen Grace O'Brian, Editor

EnlightenmentJournal@CSEcenter.org

FROM THE EDITOR'S CUSHION
Everyday, enlightenment.