9/30/2010 – The Ripeness of Late Summer…

It is 3:49pm on a cool late summer afternoon in Gregory canyon. It’s been several weeks since I’ve been here last. The rhythms have grown quiet. The colors are in full force exhibiting reds, oranges, greens and browns. Grasshoppers make small distant sounds. It’s no longer loud, but soft and quiet. It’s cool and humid. Here in the coolness of the valley, the water collects into little ponds. It hasn’t rained for a while, but you can smell the putridity mixed with the smell of wet dog fur, mixed with sweetness of the decaying fruit and grasses – offering a bouquet of rotten fragrant putridity. Some of the leaves hang low on the trees, weighing down. The sap withdraws and the leaves begin to wilt, becoming yellow as vitality declines. Now things start to return back to the earth through ripening, rotting, and integrating back into the depths.

Gregory Canyon now looks more ragged, downtrodden, wilted, yet ablaze in color. Things start to hang limp, looking a little shoddy. Fruit are decaying in dark brown masses. All the apples have fallen. The bears have been in here and have left their scat. Only the sound of occasional dropping leaves and quiet munching of something somewhere deep in the ravine can be heard.

Even as the plants die and their big pointy stalks hang laden with food, they give up their life, they give their all to nourish others. Such is with all mothers. The Earth will nourish all, saving the self for last, even if it has to give up its life to do it, it will do it without question. The Earth gives equally to all and does not pick favorites. All the animals can feed at her breast. Even though her children may bicker and flight over food, she will make sure that all are nourished equally.

This reminds me of the Stomach point, XI 9, People Welcome. The Earth constitution takes care of everybody, giving them what they ask for. But because she wishes to avoid conflict at all costs in asserting herself and asking for what she needs in return, she feels compelled to give and give. Over time she becomes resentful of any request that’s asked of her. This starts to manifest as quiet servitude because of lack of communication. This resentment of people in her life, and a lack of harvest derived form a lack of asserting one’s boundaries soon turns into ingratiation. Through people pleasing, manipulation, hoarding, stinginess and secretiveness she retreats from the world. Because she’s not asserting her needs, she begins to hoard onto everything the gets. Soon she’s “had it up to here” and no longer welcomes them into her life, but withdraws into her inner world. People Welcome can open up the Windows to the Heaven and welcome people back in her life through proper communication and assertion of her needs. In so doing, she finds she’s surrounded by an abundance of people who are willing to help.