By Maureen McGonagle
Hiking up to Tinker Cliffs this weekend, I was delighted to see the Spring ephemeral wildflowers bursting forth on this warm April day. They lit up the understory with their sweet blooms of blues, pinks, purples, and yellows. Bloodroot, hepatica, Virginia bluebells, trout lily, and trillium dappled the mountainside, soaking up the abundant sun shining through the open canopy. With such delicate fortitude, these first Spring wildflowers endure the frigid nights of a prolonged Winter, and the dog days of early Summer by holding close to the Earth. They are small, mighty, and precious in their transience. Within a couple of months, they are gone, living beneath our feet, and waiting for that next perfect moment to spring their gifts of food, medicine, shelter, and beauty into the world.
These plants have taught me a lot about what it means to live with life at the center, a lesson enlivened by my explorations of the Sourced Design principles over the past 8 months. This course and community has been a practice ground for relating to myself and my environment in places beyond my conditioning–places of courage, creativity, and commitment. It has been a moment-to-moment practice, rooted far more in questions than in answers, but toward a wholeness that is at the heart of our very nature. I felt it. This morning. Wading amongst the bluebells. What gifts will I share with the world?