Elephant Wisdom

Len, Willa, and I were out on a walk and saw an estate sale sign. While they stayed outside, I went in. As I perused the many items, I overheard the estate sale woman telling another Lookie Lou that the 95-year-old woman who’d resided there was alive and well, but had decided to relocate to Florida.

While blatantly eavesdropping, my eye caught a small, glass, cobalt blue elephant holding court over the living room from the white-painted brick hearth of a fireplace. A minimalist, I don’t acquire many “things,” but she now resides in my writing studio.

It’s interesting to note that elephant wisdom includes the art of listening. An animal with large ears and a comparatively small mouth, we learn that we would do well to listen and speak in those proportions.

During this holiday season, some spiritual traditions read and sing about the three wise men and the gifts they brought to the Christ child. In fact, the giving of gifts has become a tradition among many people, regardless of their faith background.

I’m learning about the gifts of elephant wisdom. They include awareness, confidence, dignity, environmental protection, guardianship, family love, happiness, kindness, listening, longevity, patience, reliability, stamina, and wisdom.

Which of these gifts do you resonate with most?

© lauriebuchanan.com

Knocking on Heaven’s Door

A birds-eye view of a particular section in downtown Boise currently looks like a knoll covered with hundreds of industrious carpenter ants. Heavy equipment and hardhats abound, but the piece that grabbed my attention is one of the sky-high cranes. To me it looks tall enough to knock on Heaven’s door.

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Whether Heaven is a geographic location with pearly gates and streets paved with gold, a gathering place for source energy, a reassuring figment of one’s imagination, or something else altogether, it’s the term many spiritual traditions use when referring to where one’s spirit/soul goes in the afterlife.

My father recently passed away and it’s comforting for me to think about his returning “home” after “graduating” from a lifelong class of learnings here on Earth.

A student of purposeful living, I’m ready and rarin’ to continue learning for several more decades. But if I find myself knocking on Heaven’s door anytime soon, I feel at peace with that, too.

Are you prepared to knock on Heaven’s door?

© lauriebuchanan.com