On our 20th Wedding Anniversary, as part of our celebration, we bought ourselves a water lily plant. I’d never had one before and my training in care was minimal. All I knew about the lily was to place it in my water garden and enjoy its blossom and to feed it once a month. I marveled at how it closed its bloom as dusk approached and then opened again the next morning with the sun. There is something so magical about water lilies. No wonder they were an obsession to the painter Claude Monet.

So, for three days I just marveled at my water lily plant and its one blossom until I woke up to find it sinking into the water. I had no idea what was happening and thought for sure I’d done something wrong in my care. I tried to lift it back out of the water and balance it between the lily pads. However, it just kept sinking. I finally realized I could go to Google to find out what was going on and hopefully repair my damage.

What did I find out? Simply, what any avid water gardener would already know. This is the way water lilies die; they slowly sink into the pond. It suggested clipping the dying bloom back with my finger nails. So, I did. I almost felt like I was ending a life. I couldn’t just throw the bloom away, so I composted it with one of my other plants. I was sad to see my water garden blossomless. I wasn’t sure what was next, when the very next day a new blossom began to show itself from under the water. What a miracle?

The mystics have always told us to look to Nature for our answers to life. Nature holds all the wisdom we could ever need. I am allowing the water lily to teach me. I even now trust the process of life on a deeper level. Nothing ever dies. Eternal life is like the water lily plant that just keeps giving of itself through the process of creation. There is a seeming death, but there is no ending. The plant is still very much alive giving birth again and again. The blossom is like our earthly body, but our Spirit is like the plant, eternal.

I also learned that when we do not understand something, we might jump to the wrong conclusions. Many of us do not totally understand death, for example. Just because we cannot see something with our earthly eyes, doesn’t mean it is not there. Perhaps, we need to learn to feel more and see less. Our 5th dimensional senses are far greater than our finite 3-D world perception. Just as there is a lot more going on under the water lily plant that’s blocked from my view, so it is with the Unseen world.

Nature knows exactly how to take care of itself and all of Nature is unique and magical. A water lily’s care is not the same as a daffodil’s care. We are Nature and just as magical. We are all different and need different care. We know exactly how to take care of ourselves spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. We should trust our intuition which is the same as instinct in Nature.

The greatest Mystic and Master Teacher, Jesus once said, “Judge not according to appearances, but by right judgment…”. Everything is not as it appears. For instance, you might be at the worst time in your life feeling like you are sinking under that water like my water lily. But maybe, It might just be that a part of yourself needs to die so the real you, the new you can be born. What’s weighing you down? Let it go and let the new be born.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren