Planning: One Flew Under the Bodhi Tree.

Bodhi Tree Hawaii

I was never a nature girl. Camping meant sharing a sleeping bed with rocks and dirt and bugs and aren't we told to watch out for those bed bugs? But my time in the ashram has changed me. This all started the night under the Bodhi tree.

Imagine the largest tree you have ever seen. One that you know can't be cut down, nor should it. Here the lion can sleep with the lamb, and I can rest with the ants. Despite there being various birds and creatures cluttering the branches and the sighting of roots, there are no droppings. Not in the dirt, not on the leaves. Which, frankly, made for a more comfortable me.

My friend, Grace, she's begun the sacred practice under neath the Bodhi tree. Her lineage is pure and she's been chosen by the lama, and in return given a Yidam. This Yidam is her guide through the deep meditation. I, on the other hand, have not been blessed with a Yidam. Grace, if you can recall, is a shining light in this world. When I met her she guided me here, to this ashram, to the Bodhi tree. I'm just learning, only just learning, what it means to turn on the light or seek a flame. Before, I wouldn't have been okay with this. Never. Competition is key.... was key. I was the star of the track team, an aggressive, ambitious leader in the buisness field. To not be chosen for anything? Impossible.

But, my time under the Bodhi tree has taught me to breath deeply into the ground. Root myself to the world and touch the waters of deep, deep knowledge. To drink in purity and exhale doubt, aggression, and disease. When I learned that I wasn't ready, I knew in my heart it was true, fighting it would only keep my soul trapped in the dark I so desperately attempted to hide inside. When I breathed in, "Okay" I exhaled, "Why not?" Releasing the negativity of my mindset, I felt the light from deep within warm.

I sit here, underneath the Bodhi tree everyday. For maybe twenty minutes, for maybe an hour. Grace comes nearly all day. I swear, when I look at her, she is a flame. A flame of knowledge and life and stories and other lives far beyond this one. She is a Goddess, full of flame.



AUTHOR'S NOTE:
So, this is kind of both planning and an actual story. This is going to be a type of conclusion to my storybook (heh, sorry spoilers!)
My goal was to help bring Savanna back to the Universe, and I used the story The Banished Girls, in which the sister returns to the Goddess at the end. I love the character Grace, she's wonderful. SO I'm looking at drawing the parallel there!


WEBSITE:
http://www.wisdom-tree.com