Carpe Diem #1328 Along the Road

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend with a lot of love, peace and inspiration. My weekend was a real joy and gave me some rest to go on being your host. As you have seen I started with our traditional holidays feature "Seven Days Before Christmas" in which we count down to Christmas Eve.

This episode I love to inspire you with a quote from Paulo Coelho's "The Pilgrimage" that wonderful novel about his spiritual pilgrimage to Santiago. Here at CDHK we have had several post about the Road to Santiago and we have had also a whole month about this pilgrimage at the start of this year.

"The Pilgrimage" is one of Coelho's most personal novels next to "Aleph" and "The Valkyries" he gives us insight in his spiritual growth while he his walking the "Road to Santiago", one of the most known pilgrimages on earth.
I remember that a few posts back I wrote about looking at nature as a child or look at nature as if you see it all for the very first time. The quote for today has a strong connection with "being a child as an adult".

Road to Santiago (Portugal)

Here is the quote for your inspiration:

[...] "I began to talk to everything along the Road: tree trunks, puddles, fallen leaves and beautiful vines. It was an exercise of the common people, learned by children and forgotten by adult." [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

It sounds like Coelho has become mad, but isn't that what we all need sometimes ... to be mad? Than we can see the perspective of the bigger cause, the bigger goal. Look around you ... look at all nature's beauty as if you see it for the very first time. Nature is the best teacher we can have ... as haiku poets we know how much nature can learn us. Be a child again, be mad for a while and enjoy the beauty of nature.

wren*
between bare branches
first snow

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

* Troglodytes troglodytes

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 24th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1137 The Bridge

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Thank you all for your support according to my exam of today. By the way I passed the exam, so I may now prescribe medicines for my oncology patients. It was a though exam, and at first I was very nervous, but finally I became more calm and could do the exam with a good result.

January is almost over and we are entering the last stages of our Road to Santiago. It was (and still is) an adventure to make this pilgrimage in the virtual world together with Paulo and his guide Petrus. We have learned a lot I think and maybe there will be a time to walk this Road for real ...

This episode I have titled "The Bridge" and it refers to the following passage in "The Pilgrimage":

[...] One morning we arrived  at an immense bridge, totally out of proportion to the modest stream that coursed below it. It was early on a Sunday morning, and, since the bars and taverns nearby were all closed, we sat down there to eat our breakfast.
‘People and nature are equally capricious,’ I said, trying to start a conversation. ‘We build beautiful bridges, and then Mother Nature changes the course of the rivers they cross.’
‘It’s the drought,’ he said.
‘What do you know about this bridge?’ he asked me.
‘Nothing,’ I answered. ‘But even with the drought, it’s too big. I think the river must have changed its course.’
‘As far as that goes, I have no idea,’ he said. ‘But it is known along the Road to Santiago as the “honorable passage.” These fields around us were the site of some bloody battles between the Suevians and the Visigoths, and later between Alphonse III’s soldiers and the Moors.
Maybe the bridge is oversize to allow all that blood to run past without flooding the city.’
‘However, it wasn’t the Visigoth hordes or the triumphant cries of Alphonse III that gave this
bridge its name. It was another story of love and death.'

"The Honorable Passage", or Orbigo Bridge

‘During the first centuries of the Road to Santiago, pilgrims, priests, nobles, and even kings came from all over Europe to pay homage to the saint. Because of this, there was also an influx of assailants and robbers. History has recorded innumerable cases of robbery of entire caravans of pilgrims and of horrible crimes committed against lone travelers.’
‘Because of the crimes, some of the nobility decided to provide protection for the pilgrims, and each of the nobles involved took responsibility for protecting one segment of the Road. But just as rivers change their course, people’s ideals are subject to alteration. In addition to frightening the malefactors, the knights began to compete with each other to determine who was the strongest and most courageous on the Road. It wasn’t long before they began to do battle with each other, and the bandits returned to the Road with impunity.' [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Bridges ... bring people from different sides together, in a way our Haiku Kai can be compared with a bridge. Here we come together, haiku poets from all over the globe ... we have build virtual bridges from a lot of countries to here ... and I am proud of it.

from all directions
bridges lead people together
to be together

creating and celebrating poetry
from the land of the Rising Sun

© Chèvrefeuille

Let us protect all those bridges that brought us together ... a warmhearted family of haiku poets. Thank you all for crossing that bridge in harmony with each other out of unconditional love.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 1st at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1119 Miracles

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

"I believe in miracles". Every day again it is a miracle that the sun rises again, that birds start to sing. Every day I experience the beauty of unconditional love through my work as an oncology nurse, that's a miracle too. Miracles are the joy of our life and we just have to see them in the tiniest things around us. That small flower, or, as in that nice haiku by Basho, the "shepherd' s purse" under the hedge:

looking closely:

a shepherd's purse blossoming
beneath the hedge

© Basho (tr. Barnhill)

In every little thing I can see the miracles performed by God, the Creator, Great Spirit, Allah or what every other high power we know. To see those little tiny miracles we need knowledge and not a sacred or secret knowledge ... we only need the knowledge of our souls, our hearts, our minds ... the knowledge of the common people.

Everywhere on our planet there are religions, philosophies and beliefs in the power of nature, for example: Shinto, druidism, wicca and shamanism. All wonderful ways, or maybe I have to say paths of wisdom were we can learn the knowledge of common people. This is the knowledge of the Road to Santiago.

In "The Pilgrimage" Paulo's guide, Petrus, says "the path to knowledge is a path that’s open to everyone, to the common people." This is what the Road to Santiago is ... a path for everyone, just common people can go this path and learn from each other the wisdom of common man.

Daisies

We all have the power to use that common knowledge just to be there for each other without anger, jealousy, hate, but with unconditional love, friendship, respect and happiness. We are on our way to discover the sacred and secret knowledge of common people while we are walking the Road to Santiago.

her miracles

make me a little child again
colorful leaves
in praise of Mother Earth
I gather them

miracles happen
in the tiniest things
daisies blooming

miracles happen

every day again flowers bloom
birds sing their song

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 11th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #952 New Life

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of CDHK. I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I certainly did. Last Saturday we got our Yorkshire Terrier pup. It's really a joy to have a dog again. Our pup brings joy and that's of course something we can use after all the sad things of the last few weeks. I even see this new family member as New Life, as is our prompt for today.

All prompts are extracted from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary  of Haiku" and here are a few examples of haiku Jane shared on this prompt.

lying in your lap
the dense smell of musk
a birthday gift

the poise of coming
forward waves on a beach
a baby's first steps

© Jane Reichhold

These two haiku are inspired on the modern spring kigo "new life", but as we look at the "classical" kigo than this kigo points towards spring, young leaves, flowers, cherry blossom and so on, but in my opinion you can also interpret "new life" as taking another, new path, as a pilgrim ...

I became inspired as I read "The Pilgrimage" by Paulo Coelho and I created the following haiga:

Well ... what do you think? Is this a great way to respond on our prompt "new life"?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 14th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, air, later on.

PS. I am hopelessly behind with visiting and commenting I hope to catch up a.s.a.p.

Carpe Diem Special #84, The Way of St. James (part 10)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today we will enter the last part of our pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela together with Paulo and his companion Petrus. Will he retrieve his sword? We will see ...

As we go on after the Self challenge of our last Special episode we encounter Paulo and his companion Petrus somewhere on the road. Paulo has had an encounter with a dog in the ruined city of Foncebadon and is wounded. Petrus carries him towards the house of a blacksmith, were several humans help him to give first aid and care.

The ruined city of Foncebadon Spain

He is taken good care of, but than the story goes that Paulo has Rabies and so they send him away because they are anxious that he will become Rabid and will spread the disease. As they leave the blacksmith's home Paulo asks Petrus if he was worried about his recovery. Petrus than answers:

[...] ‘There is an understanding about the Road to Santiago that I have not told you about before,’ he said. ‘Once a pilgrimage has begun, the only acceptable excuse for interrupting it is illness. If you had not been able to recover from your wounds and your fever had continued, it would have been an omen, telling us that our pilgrimage had to end there.’ [...] (Source: Paulo Coelho's The Pilgrimage)

As they went on they walk along a path on which crosses are statued every 30 metres, one of the crosses has fallen and than Petrus asks, no commands, Paulo to set the cross again in a standing position. Paulo, unless the wounds on his hands, arms and legs, does what Petrus is asking for. As Paulo is busy with this work he uses all the excercises he had learned from Petrus, As he uses the Excercise of the Seed he conquers the pain, realising that their was once a Saviour who had done the same, and sets the cross again in it's standing position.

Cross along the Way of St. James (The Camino)

After a while they arrive at Ponferrada on an ancient railway station were they sit down on an ancient steam-locomotive. There Petrus tells Paulo the secret of RAM, The Tradition which will lead him back to his sword.

[...] ‘The secret is the following,’ Petrus said. ‘You can learn only through teaching. We have been together here on the Road to Santiago, but while you were learning the practices, I learned the meaning of them. In teaching you, I truly learned. By taking on the role of guide, I was able to find my own true path. ‘If you succeed in finding your sword, you will have to teach the Road to someone else. And only when that happens – when you accept your role as a Master – will you learn all the answers you have in your heart. Each of us knows the answers, even before someone tells us what they are. Life teaches us lessons every minute, and the secret is to accept that only in our daily lives can we show ourselves to be as wise as Solomon and as powerful as Alexander the Great. But we become aware of this only when we are forced to teach others and to participate in adventures as extravagant as this one has been.’
I was hearing the most unexpected farewell in my life. The person with whom I had had the most intense bond was saying good-bye right there in midjourney – in an oilysmelling train yard, with me forced to keep my eyes closed. ‘I don’t like saying good-bye,’ Petrus continued. ‘I am Italian, and I am very emotional. But according to the law of the Tradition, you must find your sword alone. This is the only way that you will believe in your own power. I have passed on to you everything that I have to give. The only thing left is the Dance Exercise, which I am going to teach you now; you should perform it tomorrow at the ritual.’
He was silent for a while, and then he spoke: ‘May that which is glorified be glorified in the Lord. You may open your eyes.’ [...] (Source: Paulo Coelho's The Pilgrimage)

Ponferrada is also very well known by people who are into the Myths of the Templars, because in Ponferrada there stands one of the castles of the Templars.

Castle of the Templars at Ponferrada

The last part of the Camino Paulo has to walk completely alone, conquering his Self again and looking for his Saviour. Finally he arrived at the point were his Master welcomes him and give him back his sword.

[…] “In the small church there was no cross. There on the altar were the relics of the miracle: the chalice and the paten that I had seen during the dance, and a silver reliquary containing the body and blood of Jesus. I once again believed in miracles and in the impossible things that human beings can accomplish in their daily lives.
The mountain peaks seemed to say to me that they were there only as a challenge to humans – and that humans exist only to accept the honor of that challenge. The lamb slipped into one of the pews, and I looked to the front of the chapel. Standing before the altar, smiling – and perhaps a bit relieved – was my Master: with my sword in his hand. I stopped, and he came toward me, passing me by and going outside. I followed him. In front of the chapel, looking up at the dark sky, he unsheathed my sword and told me to grasp its hilt with him. He pointed the blade upward and said the sacred Psalm of those who travel far to achieve victory:

“A thousand fall at your side, and ten thousand to your right,
but you will not be touched.
No evil will befall you, no curse will fall upon your tent;
your angels will be given orders regarding you,
to protect you along your every way.”

I knelt, and as he touched the blade to my shoulders, he said:

“Trample the lion and the serpent, The lion cub and the dragon will make shoes for your feet.”

As he finished saying this, it began to rain. The rain fertilized the earth, and its water would return to the sky after having given birth to a seed, grown a tree, brought a flower into blossom. The storm intensified, and I raised my head, feeling the rain for the first time in my entire journey along the Road to Santiago. I remembered the dry fields, and I was joyful that they were being showered upon that night. I remembered the rocks in Leon, the wheat fields of Navarra, the dryness of Castile, and the vineyards of Rioja that today were drinking the rain that fell in torrents, with all of the force in the skies. I remembered having raised a cross, and I thought that the storm would once again cause it to fall to earth so that another pilgrim could learn about command and obedience. I thought of the waterfall, which now must be even stronger because of the rainfall, and of Foncebadon, where I had left such power to fertilize the soil again. I thought about all of the water I had drunk from so many fountains that were now being replenished. I was worthy of my sword because I knew what to do with it. The Master held out the sword to me, and I grasped it. I looked about for the lamb, but he had disappeared. But that did not matter: the Water of Life fell from the sky and caused the blade of my sword to glisten.” […] (Source: Paulo Coelho’s The Pilgrimage)

Holy Sword

And here ends this Pilgrimage in which Paulo has changed a lot as a person. He has become a totally different person than who he was on the day that he started with his Way of St. James. We had the opportunity to follow within his footsteps and maybe … we all have transformed too.

pilgrims transformation
as buds burst open in spring
flowering cherry trees

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 31th 11.59 AM (CET). I will post our next episode, Shido-ji (temple 86), later on today (I will try to be on time).

Carpe Diem Special #82, The Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela (part 8) Agape

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Well here it is the delayed special of yesterday. We are going on with our pilgrimage to Santaigo De Compostela together with Paulo Coelho and his companion Petrus.
In the last special we arrived at Logrono were a big celebration took place. Paulo and his companion left that town very fast and are now again on their way to Santiago De Compostela.
Paulo and Petrus are strong men and while on their pilgrimage they talk a lot. As we encounter them again they are talking about agape, but what is agape? Petrus tells us what agape is:

[...] "Agape is total love. It is the love that consumes the person who experiences it. Whoever knows and experiences agape learns that nothing else in the world is important – just love. This was the kind of love that Jesus felt for humanity, and it was so great that it shook the stars and changed the course of history. His solitary life enabled him to accomplish things that kings, armies, and empires could not. ‘During the millennia of Christian civilization, many individuals have been seized by this love that consumes. They had so much to give – and their world demanded so little that they went out into the deserts and to isolated places, because the love they felt was so great that it transformed them. They became the hermit saints that we know today. ‘For you and for me, who experience a different form of agape, this life may seem terrible. But the love that consumes makes everything else – absolutely everything – lose its importance. Those men lived just to be consumed by their love.’" [...] (Source: The PIlgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Agape

Here we learn what agape really is. It's unconditional love for all and everything. This is what Paulo had to learn again and through this lesson he is a step closer to regaining his sword what he lost a while ago. This lesson he needed to grow further. For this he went on his way to Santiago de Compostela.

unconditional
without exceptions built in
live agape

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Without agape I couldn't live or excist. It's that strong unconditional love that makes me who I am an oncology-nurse and a haiku-poet. Without agape I couldn't do what I do. This agape is why I post every day a new episode to share my love, my unconditional love with you all my dear Haijin.
This love is very strong and in this time of year, when we are on our way to Easter, this love will become stronger. This time of year we call 'Lent'.

Narcissus Poeticus

narcissus bloom
shining their light on our path -
He has risen

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This Special episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 19th 11.59 AM (CET). Our next episode will be, Sankakuji (temple 65).

Carpe Diem Special #81, The Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela (part 7)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all know we are on two pilgrimages these months. First we are walking the Shikoku Trail and second we are walking the Camino (The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela). On the Camino we are walking together with Paulo Coelho and his guide Petrus on search for Paulo's 'lost' sword. His sword he lost as he was initiated into The Tradition (a kind of Wiccan or Pagan kind of religion). He lost it (his sword) as he took it in his hands without the proper reasons as he was initiated ... so he wasn't ready to become an Initiate of The Tradition. Therefor he had to go on this pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela.
Somewhere in his novel "The Pilgrimage" Paulo and his guide Petrus are visiting one of the few big cities through which the Camino leads. This city, Logrono, has a great festival at the time as they are arriving there. A big wedding festival of one of the high officers and so the city is crowded with people from all parts of the world and TV-stations.

Along the Camino (Logrono Spain)

Paulo, doesn't want to be there, it's to crowded for him after all the days of his pilgrimage performing all kinds of rituals and exercises in the warm embrace of Mother Nature, in her heart, in her silence and he describes how his is feeling at that moment.

[...] I was feeling very calm, and I was more and more aware of the importance of the Road to Santiago in my life and of the question of what I was going to do after the pilgrimage had ended. The area we walked through was like a desert, the meals were seldom very good, and the long days on the Road were exhausting, but I was living my dream. [...]

This is what a pilgrimage is ... is exhausting and it will bring new insights. In a way you can perform such a pilgrimage in your own home or garden. Such a pilgrimage is just stay awake for two or three days ... you will be exhausted, your mind will be silent and by the exhausting you are hallucinating or feeling yourself in a trance ... that's what a pilgrimage does with you and that's what such a short pilgrimage around your home or in your garden will do with you. I have once tried it and ... well I was really exhausted, but had the feeling that I could do everything ... I felt very strong and very creative ... for sure I wrote wonderful haiku than or maybe a short story or novel. Several years ago I wrote my first fantasy-novel and there were times that I was that kind of inspired that I couldn't sleep and had to write ... maybe writing a novel is also a kind of pilgrimage.

Camino

Why are people going on a pilgrimage? To find thereselves? Or to become in tune with nature or become in tune with the bigger world, the unconscious world or our sub-conscious world. Are they going on a pilgrimage for fun? I don't know. I think if you will find your true self, your Inner Self, taking a pilgrimage is the best way to have an encounter with your deeper Self. Pilgrimages are not easy, but for sure a pilgrimage is the best teacher for everyone.

walking the path
overcoming my physical form
finding Inner Self

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Not a real haiku or senryu, but more a little verse of insight ... that's what this pilgrimages are doing with me ...

along the road
poppies start blooming again -
the scent of straw

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Well ... we are still on our way to Santiago De Compostela, but we are closing in to the end of our Camino ... our virtual Camino ...
This episode is now open for your submissions and will remain open until March 13th 11.59 AM (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, Taisan-ji (temple 52), later on today. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at our haiku-community Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Carpe Diem #77, Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela (or The Way of St. James)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As we enter on the soils of Spain, leaving the Pyrenees behind, Paulo performs The Seed Excercise for the 7th time and is caught in it's power. By slapping him in the face, Petrus brings him back to real life saying: 'That's the problem with those who perform this excercise if they are looking for the little details as you always do. You've to look at the bigger thing to find your sword again'.

Marmotte in the Pyrenees

between the rocks
a marmotte is hiding for the sun -
a skylark's song

(c) Chèvrefeuille

As they went on with their pilgrimage Paulo asks Petrus whether he was worried about the many things he had been forced to abandon in order to guide a pilgrim in search of his sword. Petrus answers him with the following. And I think his (Petrus') words are very true.

[...] ‘When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don’t even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in difficult situations. And you accept any small favor from the gods with great delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life. ‘At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them, and you feel happy to be alive. That’s why a religious pilgrimage has always been one of the most objective ways of achieving insight. The word peccadillo, which means a “small sin,” comes from pecus, which means “defective foot,” a foot that is incapable of walking a road. The way to correct the peccadillo is always to walk forward, adapting oneself to new situations and receiving in return all of the thousands of blessings that life generously offers to those who seek them’. [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela

In his answer lays the truth ... a pilgrimage is way to be reborn again. You will see new things and will experience new things. You are confronted with new situations which you need to adjust to. This is why we meditate and contemplate about all things we have learned while we are travelling between different places, as we do e.g. on our Shikoku Pilgrimage. The real revelations are coming to us while we are walking the paths between the different temples and in those revelations we conclude all what is happening to us while on our way. We meet other pilgrims whom we talk with. Together with all those other pilgrims, the nature around us and all the things we see while walking our path, all things which come in mind while we are walking ... all those ne experiences re-form us, make us all new re-born humans. That's why we are that anxious to complete our pilgrimage along the 88 temples, as we do on Shikoku, or as Paulo Coelho does while searching for his ritual sword on his pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela.

There is the similarity between the pilgrimages we are following this month and the next. And what a joy to read the contributions of Bryan who performs his own pilgrimage by using John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. As we are going on with our pilgrimage on Shikoku we are also part of the pilgrimage by Paulo and Bryan. This month will be awesome and I think we will come closer to Enlightenment, Karumi as Basho calls it.

a whispered prayer -
pilgrims on their way to Santiago 
walking the Path of God

walking the Path of God
reaching out to their deepest thoughts
seeking the Light

seeking the Light
while chanting psalms or mantras
pilgrims on their way

pilgrims on their way
enjoying Mother Earth's beauty -

a whispered prayer

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Camino Sign, pointing the way to Santiago De Compostela

What a joy to guide you all over the paths and roads between the seperated goals of life ... a pilgrimage in characters, words and haiku ... together as one ... full of respect and love. Enjoy the pilgrimage and maybe ... experience rebirth ...

This Special episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET)and will remain open until February 15th 11.59 AM (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode later on today. Our new goal on Shikoku will be Hotsumisakiji (temple 24) and will bring us on the second part of the Shikoku Pilgrimage as we enter Kochi Prefecture.

Carpe Diem #76, Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela or The Way of St. James

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today we are going on with our second stage in our Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela ... in which we follow Paulo Coelho as he takes the Camino also know as The Way to St. James. In our first CD Special of this month we arrived at Saint Jean Pied de Port and registered as pilgrims of St. James. We met Mme Lourdes and got or first instruction given by her to find our guide.

Just a few kilometres outside Saint Jean Pied de Port we met our guide Petrus, a guide who also is a member of The Tradition, the nature religion (similar with Pagan and Wiccan), as Paulo is. Petrus will guide Paulo and us along The Way of St. James and will learn us to find back that what we have lost as what Paulo lost while he was initiated in the Order of RAM ... For Paulo his mistake was greed, but for any one else it can be something else. We all are on our Path to Enlightenment and everyone of us will sure have things to settle or seeking for. A pilgrimage can bring you great insight and that''s why we become pilgrims to get insight in our lives, hearts, minds and souls.

The Camino

As Petrus and Paulo are starting with their pilgrimage together Petrus learns Paulo one of the first exercises of The Order of RAM, that exercise is called The Seed. It''s an exercise to re-live the beginning of your life. In other words with that exercise you re-live your birth. It starts from a fetal position.

Kneel on the ground. Then seat yourself on your heels and bend forward so that your head touches your knees. Stretch your arms behind you. You are now in a fetal position. Relax, releasing all your tensions. Breathe calmly and deeply. Little by little you will perceive that you are a tiny seed, cradled in the comfort of the earth. Everything around you is warm and delicious. You are in a deep, restful sleep. Suddenly, a finger moves. The shoot no longer wants to be a seed; it wants to grow. Slowly you begin to move your arms, and then your body will begin to rise, straightening up until you are seated

on your heels. Now you begin to lift your body up, and slowly, slowly you will become erect, still kneeling on the ground. The moment has come to break completely through the earth. You begin to rise slowly, placing one foot on the ground, then the other, fighting against the disequilibrium just as a shoot battles to make its own space, until finally you are standing. Imagine the area about you, the sun, the water, the wind, and the birds. Now you are a shoot that is beginning to grow. Slowly raise your arms toward the sky. Then stretch yourself more and more, more and more, as if you want to grasp the enormous sun that shines above you. Your body begins to become more and more rigid, all of your muscles strain, and you feel yourself to be growing, growing, growing –you become huge. The tension increases more and more until it becomes painful, unbearable. When you can no longer stand it, scream and open your eyes. (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

With this exercise Paulo goes back to the time in which he discovered his connection with nature and finally with The Tradition. During the sven days after he learned this exercise he performs The Seed every day while enjoying the walk straight through the Pyrenees climbing and decending the mountains ... Paulo re-encountered the beauty of the Creation and he meets his Creator. 

The Camino

In a way we are all similar with Paulo ... try to look at the Creation created by Our Creator with the eyes of a child ... full of surprise because it sees e.g a flower bloom for the very first time. We all have to do that on regular base ... look at your surroundings, your environment as if you see it for the very first time ... enjoy what you see as a child, become a child again and than you will experience what LIFE really is ...

In haiku we do that also ... we are surprised by something what occurs in just an eye-blink, just a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. That''s what The Seed means. Of course these thoughts are the thoughts of myself, but maybe ... just maybe ... you, my dear haijin, visitor and traveler, see it in the same way. For this episode I will share an old haiku which I wrote several years ago, but which is right on it''s place here ...

the first cherry blossom
tears of joy roll over my cheeks
I dance in prayer

I dance in prayer
my Creator gave me joy again -

the first cherry blossom

(c) Chèvrefeuille

first cherry blossom of my Sakura

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 9th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to publishe our next episode, Kirihataji, later on today. For now ... have fun, be inspired and experience the Creation as if you see it for the very first time. By the way, I am behind with commenting I hope to catch up soon.