by Jennifer Johnston
Qing Ming's Garden of Eden
When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are;
Anything your heart desires
May come to you.
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme.
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do ...
Fate steps in and sees you through.
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true.
Jiminy Cricket sang those lovely lyrics by Ned Washington at the beginning of the 1940 Walt Disney movie Pinocchio. I wasn't born until six years after the movie came out, and I don't really remember when I first saw it or heard the song, although it was likely in the 1954 theatrical re-release of the film, when I was eight. Whenever it was, those lyrics, and the lovely lilting melody, have lived in my mind and my heart since I was a child.
I've wished on many, many stars ... and birthday candles ... dropped a lot of nickels in a wishing well, saved the fortunes that the fortune cookies tell, got a lucky penny and a mustard seed (as the old song goes) ... pulled the petals off uncounted daisies ... and looked for the pot of gold at the end of countless rainbows.... But rainbows are optical illusions and leprechauns are notoriously tight-fisted, so that's just silly ... and I digress.... (grin)
I know that our wishes are not always granted, or perhaps not granted at the time the wish was made. But that does not preclude that one day, one life, we will realize our most cherished dreams, and all will be as it should be then, even if it cannot be that way now.
I've been very much enjoying Nicki's stories and pictures of her recent Alaskan adventure! Yahn and I did not make it to Alaska in our travels ... although it would be churlish of me to complain because we were fortunate enough to see so many wonderful countries and cultures. Unfortunately his health problems over the past few years have prevented us from taking any more trips. (This seems a good time to reiterate that if you have the desire ... and still have the health ... to travel, do not put it off because we never know when something may put a halt to our venturing forth, at least in this lifetime.)
So, instead of traveling to Alaska, or back to Bali or Egypt, or to new places which now it appears must be deferred for another life (but where I may already have been resident in previous incarnations), I have continued to spend some time recently interacting with diverse people on Facebook, and also blissing out in my virtual dog Qing Ming's lovely Garden of Eden in Dog World (DW), which I've written about in earlier posts. I am now happy to be able to share a picture of Qing Ming's little "world" with you (above), thanks in no small part to my DW and FB Friend Tasom Benim, a lovely and generous man.
The "Reflection Nebula" (NGC 1999) illuminated by
V380 Orionis, a variable star (NASA Image)
Qing Ming's garden is a place of fantasy (and fantasies are waking dreams) ... a place of desire, of tranquility and abundance ... a virtual metaphor for a halcyon life imagined by the creator of the glade (that would be moi). Nearly all the yards in DW are unique, except for those who are newly come to DW, who receive a basic "package" of materials to construct a rudimentary domicile. But like life itself, the person who is dedicated to helping the dogs (or others) and interacting with a wide range of people ... while seeking enlightenment and beauty in life to make his world (and the world at large) and his future as perfect as possible ... will take time and trouble and willingly traverse the "learning curve" to get his yard ... his metaphoric life ... as he wants it.
In doing so he (or she, certainly) may learn a lot about himself and he will learn the things he needs to thrive and grow and cultivate his sui generis garden ... and will find the tools and belief to eventually share it with a sui generis, yet twindred soul who will complement his paradise. It is a place not only to learn, but indeed to gain additional insight into the universe and contemplate his place there, before he can transcend this world and ascend to the world in which he will find true everlasting love, joy and fulfillment.
There is an "Adam" in Qing Ming's and my Garden of Eden ... but he has been cruelly hurt by some and locked in his own karmic struggle, and he prefers to stay by the stream of life but within the shelter of the trees, until one day when hurts may be put aside, and trust freely given, and thoughts and belief become knowing. That is his prerogative, part of his life lessons, and Qing Ming (named in part for the Chinese holiday set aside to revere one's ancestors) and I will wait, as ever....
Sometimes (frequently) DW denizens redo their yards, as they receive "gifts" from other traveling, questing souls ... from simple additions and subtractions to complete redecoration of the entire area, because they know they must keep striving and growing and changing until all is as it should be ... as it is meant to be ... as it will be one day when the time is right. Stasis, the status quo, may be soul-killing....
Qing Ming's and many other yards are wonderful creations ... and to some extent I think a reflection of the soul of the person who builds and tends them. Some yards are dark and fearful ... those "feral darkling gardens drowned in shades and shadows, sorrow's sighs...." (Although certainly not all "dark" yards are fearful ... some are wonderfully poetic, romantic concoctions which make lovely, otherwordly settings and reveal that side of their "owners.") But Qing Ming's glade is intended to be a place of dreams and visions and enchantment. In Qing Ming's yard (as pictured here) there are wisteria and Japanese maples, a lily pond, blue and red orchids, a sleeping kitten, lovely bluebells, dramatic orange shelf fungu, a passion flower (under the wisteria on the left), and ginseng and "plaid" eggs which represent health, memory, life and rebirth.
The little sugardust fairies, the hummingbird and the blue butterflies really flutter ... the peacock spreads and folds its tail ... the dandelions dance on the cool breeze ... the wind chime sways and actually chimes (you can really hear it) ... the white kitty (Chaya, an enchanted being who also represents the cyclical and ongoing nature of life ... indeed, her name means "life") paws her cushion ... the red Japanese lanterns (draped with red orchids) glow in welcome ... the candles on the chanukiyah flicker ... the koi swim in the terraced koi ponds ... and Qing Ming moves (jumping for joy if he's happy, displaying the appropriate range of emotions if he needs food or water or medicine, which are duly supplied not only by me but by kind, passing strangers and Friends who leave gifts and notes complimenting the yard, or to encourage us, or just to wish us a nice day or week.
Occasionally Guinevere the Druid Goddess and Blog the Troll drop by to pass some time there. Blog particularly enjoys it because it is so shady that he doesn't have to worry about bursting into flames, which could happen if he stays too long in the sun.... (grin)
It is worth noting that our group has saved over 310 dogs, and counting....
News Flash: I believe in wishes .. and I believe in dreams! I am a dreamer! I am also a believer in magic, in mystery, in love ... in the unbearable lightness of being, to borrow a line ... and in the unbelievably short blink of the universal eye which constitutes our individual existences in this time and place. I truly believe that things that are meant to be, will be ... in good time, when the place and the plane and the circumstances come into the perfect alignment for the realization, the fruition, of our wishes and dreams and hopes. And while we await transcendence to that perfect place, we learn and grow and prepare for our future in the here and now. Any precipitous attempt to thwart or skew fate, to rend the fabric of our destiny, to hasten the dream to waking before the time is right, will likely lead to pain, and frustration and loss ... will obstruct and delay the fulfillment of our promised future and our ultimate joy and happiness.
Perhaps some inborn or inbred solipsism keeps many of us from fully comprehending that there are twindred souls with whom we will come into contact ... who will like what we like, laugh at the things we laugh at, think the things that we think, fully understand and share the range of our interests and our desires ... but I do believe such souls exist. It may take kissing a lot of frogs, as the old saying goes, or spending time with perfectly wonderful people who still don't quite fulfill all our needs ... but I believe the "twins" will, when time and the universe are right, find each other and achieve complete joy in their blessed and ordained joining. When time and circumstance and knowing coincide and are right, all things are possible....
In stating this belief I must note that we are all given choices in life, and yet sometimes our choices and the course of our lives in any given existence are dependent on the choices and karmic obligations of others. One of my favorite writers and philosophers, Viktor E. Frankl (1905-1997), an Austrian psychiatrist and philosopher and a survivor of the Holocaust, wrote:
Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of the human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
And so we must live our lives ... choosing the path we will take when our dreams must be deferred because of the choices and the karma of others. Sometimes we will be disappointed ... but if we are wise, we will learn and grow from those disappointments, and from the pain they sometimes bring us ... we will understand and absorb the knowledge that one day we will have what we desire, when we have reached a level of existence and growth so the dream will come at the right time, in the right place, in the right way ... we will, if we are prescient, feel the many resonances which are all around us and speak directly to the striving soul.
I firmly believe that life itself does not end with the cessation of this corporeal existence ... that we have lived other lives, and that we will be born again into additional lives until we have achieved our full potential and promise, at which time we will ascend, transcend if you will, to a higher plane ... whether you call it heaven, or ecstasy, or joy, or pure love, or whatever resonates within your soul. I realize that my beliefs do not necessarily "track" with those of many (perhaps most) of the readers of this blog ... and I firmly support their right to believe as they choose. The world's great religions and schools of thought and belief share certain commonalities of what I feel is bedrock truth, and I believe that we all come to enlightenment ... to growth and transcendence ... in many ways. This is simply a statement of what I have come to believe after many years and many existential lives.
The Siesta (Afternoon of Dreams), painting by Frederick Arthur Bridgman
(Late 19th or early 20th Century)
In his traverse of the universe, and in his good time, Dr. Frankl came to understand many things which have helped me in my journey. He also wrote:
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
I believe we must live our lives well ... taking great care for the lives and hopes and dreams and happiness of others ... feeling empathy and compassion for other fellow souls ... learning to love fully and passionately and completely and unselfishly, as we ourselves hope to be loved ... growing and stretching and seeking until we reach the light. And ... if your whole heart is in your dream ... then one day, one life, if we "act well our part" we will find that all of our wishes and dreams and yearnings were simply signposts and touchstones and resonances of promise for the life and the love ahead of us....
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true.
I wish ... I dream ... and I believe....
)O(
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