What's New at Echo Valley (March 2005)

The days have grown a bit longer. The sun wakes ever so slightly to the South. The birds are singing a sweeter song, and returning in greater numbers. Winter is leaving reluctantly, with nightly blasts of snow and cold and days of sun and melt. The moon was full last night and the coyotes woke me as they came upon their prey.
The goats and sheep prepare for birth, and I prepare to help them...

I will be fifty years old this year.
My dear friend sent me some saguaro blossom cactus tea, and with it, this:
Approximately 1% of saguaro seedlings survive the first year. In three years, about an inch of growth will be seen. After fifty years, some saguaros blossom for the first time.
Over a hundred years of blooming may produce forty-million seeds....perhaps only one seed will become a fruit bearing plant.

Hope and patience; the sweetness of Life.

Echo Valley is getting ready for spring, and when I listen carefully I can hear the enthusiasm. In gratitude and wonder I learn and accept.

We will be hosting rites of passage for young men and women this year. We will be building with sand and straw and clay. We will be watching lambs and kids frolic, and, hopefully, we will be learning to get goat's milk in the pail...

As always, you are welcome.

As we go forth, there is one more acknowledgment, one large 'Thank You' to the person who has been and remains a champion of the heart. To someone, who for the past thirty years, has reminded me of the sweetness of life, has encouraged my discovery, and has helped me choose clarity and freedom, over confusion and doubt. May his message continue to ring out, inviting all to the discovery of the heart, to the peace within.

Thank you, Maharaji.