Diwali blessing of the unexpected flowers..

 

Diwali evening just before sun go down and the flowers close up. I go to pick one of the ixora from the bush I had not planted and I see three lilies blooming and one or two dropping where none were expected nestled under the bush.

Beautiful peach pumpkin colour with yellow inside and I go back in my mind to check if these were ever there. Feeling a bit scared as I also realise that I should have seen these earlier that maybe my mind is now so all over the place looking in past and future and uncertain present that I am not noticing nice things around. I pass this spot every day and never noticed them ..

Wondering if it is wild, or brought with flood waters but then the flood never really reached this part.  Birds don't really pass lily bulbs, thinking of the yowri and so who come to fight with the cats some nights and wondering if maybe they passed it here.

Grateful for things blooming in the yard as I know that my hands must not touch them or they will not bloom or die. Another flower blooms on a bush which  had dried up and the shape is a bit different .. the triple hibiscus seems like a large double.

Heard a reference to Robin Wall Kimmerer's thoughts of Earth as Gift giver and thinking of how sometimes the Hindus do Dharti Maa puja to thank the earth for the Gifts even as many Hindus in Guyana seem to look forward to the further destruction of the planet to build Dubai near the Atlantic. Imagining Exxon and the Government doing Dharti Maa puja on the seabed before taking out the oil which will bring wealth  for some and misery for all of us as the oil burns to destroy the environment which will nurture the lilies and us. Or will they do the puja when the misery comes to hope that the Earth will listen then ?

So in receiving the blessing of the unexpected flowers at Diwali , the bombs and squibs waging terror as people imagine that it is celebration - the evidence that the blessings in a time of destruction,  and remembering the cycle of reciprocity.