Heaven and Earth Comparatively Speaking

I remember or I imagine, it's hard to tell the difference these days. So I'll pretend that I remember what it's like to be a spirit without a body. I started this morning to think that we spend a lot of time keeping the body at just the right temperature. We don't have to worry about such trivial concerns in the spirit world. Here, if it's too hot we can get sun stroke; if it's too cold, we can die from that. In between the extremes it's chilly, too wet, or annoyingly warm. We run to turn on the heat or the fan. Such conveniences can be faulty from time to time, so we suffer to repair our appliances as quickly as possible. We don't want to die before our time after all.

We all flock to California or places in the world where the temperature stays within predicable degree all the year long. Spirit, on the other hand doesn't seek locations where the least suffering can be obtained. Spirit can create any location just by thinking about it; if we want to feel heat or cold it's very easy to do just that, mainly, a spirit is free from maintaining an internal thermostat.

Let's go with the rose garden theme now. When I was about ready to be born into physicality I had some guides. Buddies really. Just humans like myself, only not possessing of a physical body for the moment. The blokes all had something intriguing to say and sometimes they were even smarter than I thought I was. As I was about ready to enter the womb, I admit I was over-enthusiastic about the chances of gaining the experiences I desired on the earth plane; most of us are. Piece of cake we might say, from looking at it from the other side; still I was a little cautious by nature, knowing I can be impetuous.

One of my guides cautioned me that a rose garden was not promised to any should I undertake this new life, to which I retorted saucily, but sir, no disrespect intended, every one of should be given a rose garden and I see no reason why I should not be granted one myself. After all I argued here all I have to do is think one up and then it's just there, a complete rose garden with every variety that I should desire. I don't have to water it or fret over whether the sun should help me in my gardening endeavors; my mind does the work.

Well, said my wise guide, on earth, it's different. The people grow a garden by the sweat of their brow and do indeed fret over climate changes as regarding what they grow, and when they grow it, according to season changes.

I asked if he meant work was involved to which he replied I was starting to get the idea. At any rate I had other plans besides just having a fantastic garden and so off I went into the womb, enthusiasm mixed with the thought, now what fine mess am I getting myself into?

As I got older and my children became adults so that I didn't have to worry about maintaining their bodies and mine quite as much, I came to acquire a rose garden in my travels. I couldn't believe my luck! Here was a ready made rose garden of 58 various bushes and for a price I could afford. I chuckled under my breath who says that no one is promised a rose garden here? There was only one problem with it. The roses had started to deteriorate due to lack of care and they were diseased.The old man who used to lovingly care for them had grown tired and old. My work was cut for me then. I began to care for the garden that had been severely neglected and they slowly began to revive and produce roses. However the amount of work to maintain them as well as take care of other areas of my life I realized was going to overwhelm me in the end. Living in a moist climate mean mildew was one of my foes. It was certainly not like this in the spirit world. Over there disease was unheard of. All gardens were perfect and grew overnight, never to decay.

Instead of decay, they would simply fade away while a new bush would spring up in it's stead, always green, always flourishing, and yes, always quite alive to the touch, you had but to talk to the flowers and they responded to your wishes as if you were God. Here, I also talked to the plants to ask them what they needed to thrive; I did not always get a quick answer such as would be provided in the spirit world.

Nonetheless most of the bushes produced at least one rose to marvel over, for in the beginning of my work with them, I never knew which would produce what shade of rose, or what fragrance or what size, so the surprise factor never escaped me, it was just the time factor that might give me cause for concern. I still felt lucky although progress was slow and some bushes refused to thrive at all.

Then one day I spotted a deer having lunch on the few roses that were blooming. Deer eat roses? I couldn't fathom that this could be true but there it was in front of me. My love of the deer at once overtook my love of the rose and I just sat there marveling at God's creatures of which I was one myself. I decided it was better to grow deer than rose bushes. The deer came on my property only three times in three years and so I needed not to consider their number would increase and the roses would be no more. I didn't mind the bear eating from my cherry tree either. I was a city gal now in the country getting a lesson from mother nature and I didn't want to miss a single lesson.

When I wax and wane all philosophically, now and again I often reflect how my guide in the spirit world had warned me that life doesn't promise you a rose garden, but that sometimes it gives you something even better than that! The previous owner had invested much energy over 35 yrs. into his rose garden. I had tried to keep his dream alive as he was leaving this world for the next. I failed to do that. Maybe it was because no two people's visions are quite the same? At any rate I saw that the rose garden has been plowed under by the year 2013. I don't know how I feel about that. Somewhat nostalgic I suppose for what used to be. I have to say there was something beauteous just around the bend waiting for me, and it was in a nutshell, the flowering of my soul. So don't believe them when they say rose gardens are not promised to everyone, for we all have a garden of the soul. Of that you can be certain. Of course, it's work, but then we have eternity if we know we are spirit, having a human experience.