pine cone

Taking a walk this morning, I came across a pine cone, a large pine cone lying on the path. It had started to open. Some of the petals of the cone were fully open and the seeds had gone. Others were half open and one could see the seeds waiting to come out. At the top of the cone, the petals were still fully closed.

Seeing this cone it reminded me of the way we open on the spiritual path. We have many treasures inside of ourself, hidden gems that we are not aware of. Our spiritual journey is all about opening: looking inside ourselves, finding those gems, those seeds, opening our petals and bringing the light of awareness onto everything that is within us, everything that we are. With that light we grow and we flourish, we spread our wings. This opening is not only discovering the gems within ourself, but showing them to the world, sharing them with the world. We are also opening to the outer world, allowing the outer world into us.

Through this great opening, that very division between the inner and the outer disappears – the inner flowing to the outer, and the outer flowing to the inner, until the whole boundary is so blurred we are no longer feeling it, we are no longer feeling separate. But for that to happen we have to open. And opening is such a beautiful process – challenging at times, taking us into places that we do not know. For we have to be vulnerable to be open, we have to risk everything. That is the way of those on a spiritual path. So be like this pine cone, open your petals, allow your seeds, your gems, to be seen, to come into the light of life. Allow yourself to grow. This is the message that this pine cone has brought today.