As if I'd slept a thousand years underwater I wake into a new season. I open myself and am entered by light. This is the joy, the slow awakening as one by one the petals open, as the fingers that held tight the secret unfurl. I let go of the past and release the fragrance of flowers. One flower with a thousand petals, one life lived a thousand years without haste, one universe sparking a thousand stars, one god alive in a thousand people...
The lotus rises through the murky waters of ponds and lakes, when it blooms, it floats upon the surface, its petals shining and untainted by the mud from which it emerged. In the scriptural language and sacred poetry of Hinduism and Buddhism, the lotus perfectly embodies the soul, rising up through the murkiness of worldly experience until it reaches the surface of the spiritual realm and blooms, vibrant and pure, free from all taint and attachment.
