I am grateful for the noon-day sun peeking over the treeline of this shaded hollow where I live. I am grateful for warmth enough to sit outside on the porch swing for a breath of fresh air. I am grateful for my laptop computer and this sheltered spot and the wind energy like the sound of surf all around me. I am grateful for red wool blanket, gray floorboards, black dog. I am quite tired and my mind is feeling only able to focus on what my senses perceive right before me. I went to the daily question first and that did me in. So although it was my intention to continue discussion from yesterday (and to engage with the new) I am unable right now, but want you to know I carry you in my grateful heart today — especially Ose and Palm, I hope there is a gentle sense of lightening, of lifting. I am lifted by all of you.

I don’t know. To know this is perhaps wise. Lately, I have been noticing seeds everywhere in nature. It is easier to see in winter, maybe. Tiny seeds in open hemlock cones, in the dead flower heads of goldenrod and ironweed that was so profusely massed this fall, in the prickly pods of jimsonweed and milkweed, in the feathery tips of grasses. Even without my noticing or understanding, these seeds will do what they are designed to do — bring forth new flower, fruit. Maybe it is so in a metaphysical sense as well, in my own life.

Thank you, dear Palm, for your kind reply. I did feel silly going on and on about seeds in the wild when that wasn’t the point of the question, but its all I could think of (and they are fascinating to me, all the shapes, sizes, arrangements). And I guess for me a big part of ‘coming out of the shell’ is trusting that I can be myself, that what I think is worth saying, even it it doesn’t seem to fit. I am touched that you share of your similar feeling of being in a shell, needing to come out. With intention and practice, we can, my friend. This is a place where love resides.

Dear Anna, I am glad you were able to relax after an intense day. Thank you for sharing more of your experience with depression. I too have been helped in the past by skilled, compassionate professional counselors. Art therapy was especially helpful to me. Yes, this is a magical community of open, warm hearts and I am so grateful to be among you all, slowly creeping out of my shell. I will try to make a separate post to reply to those (Ose, Palm, Aine) I could not directly reply to in the discussion below, but first I need to rest. A big hug back to you, Anna, sweet dreams.