“I think that the
best kind of change, is the change that comes from the inside and begins it's
way out until it emerges on the outside; a change that is born underneath then
continues and spreads until it has reached the surface. That's a true change. A
powerful change. And I have found that while we are emerging, changing into
something glorious; it is actually us becoming who we really are. A water lily
is born underneath the water, inside the soil at the bottom of the river or
lake. And the water lily has always been a water lily for that whole time that
it was sprouting out of the wet soil, reaching up through the dark water
towards the sunlight, stretching and grasping for the surface; where it then
buds and blooms on the outside in the sunshine. It doesn't bud and bloom on the
surface and then try to reach down below into the soil.”
At a
Christian retreat in February, I found a red water lily floating in a glass
bowl at our table. It reminded me of the red water lily from a
Monet calendar I had placed on the front of a Dream Garden Book I created for a
special friend and his family. The water lily was also a charm on a
bracelet placed around my wrist at the retreat. Was the water lily
a coincidence or a sign? In Eastern cultures a red water lily means
love and passion. In other cultures a water lily means pleasure and
peace, delight and new life, purity of heart, or cycle of life.
Water is the renewal of all life and a water lily floats upon the water, its
bloom lasting less than five days. Around us are many signs of
God’s love but we often ignore the signs, instead focusing on our intellect or
reason. We recognize the beauty of a water lily yet we do not stop
or to appreciate the deeper meaning. Often I create symbols
or art and later understand the meaning. I long for someone who can also see the
meaning within symbols and build a language of metaphors that reflect the meaning
and possibilities of a water lily.
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