Little Yellow Flowers

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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

Post by Starwalker »

Im happy to add my voice to the choir. Thank you for accepting me and my little yellow flowers. :loves
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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These past few months have been very tumultuous for me. I suffered some major setbacks, but I’m picking up the pieces once again, and starting anew. Hopefully this time I get it right.

It turns out that there is more to be said about the little yellow flowers. I vacationed in Spain this past fall. While exploring the Cabo de Gata, a natural park in Almería province, I came across some peculiar thorny bushes. They had no leaves, just a few little yellow flowers on them. Rose stems have thorns, but in this case it would be more appropriate to say that these thorns had little yellow flowers. As the yellow flower has become somewhat of a symbol of my faith, these bushes served as a little reminder that the faithful are protected. No matter what happens to us in this world, no real harm will ever befall us.

Also, I recently met a woman at my office. She is a beautiful woman with a beautiful personality. Her name is Ladan, and she told me that it means ‘yellow flower.’ I see her as a well cultivated flower, whereas I am more of a wildflower. So I have taken steps to stop being a wildflower and cultivate myself. I have planted myself in a lovely church. What better culture is there than Jesus culture? Hopefully someday I will be able to let her know what yellow flowers mean to me.
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

Post by happyrain »

That's the rub right there Jonathan.

Thanks for updating us! Sounds like despite it all you're experiencing real growth and beautiful scenery. That Spirits continual guidance, acknowledging you personally is the most Beautiful of All.

I hope one day you get to reveal the little secret with her too, and in the meantime, enjoy and cherish the special connections God provides.

Happy new year! :hithere
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

Post by Sandy »

Jonathon, I am thinking of your little yellow flowers now as chaos reigns round me. In fact, I am envisioning a field stretching up to the mountains in my minds eye... and in a way it is grounding and peaceful. Life isn't always peaceful that's for sure. Finding the peace within, making that my objective rain or shine...That is what I want so badly to do this year...to let go of the past's mistakes and potential missteps and move forward accepting without regret all that has been and maybe even all that comes...since everything in our mortal experience helps us to learn more about who we are. I want to know who I am at my root source.

Little yellow flowers...so simple so sweet...something to see as a powerful message of hope. :happy
Gosh it was great to see you again, Jonathon. :D

xxSandy
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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Glad to hear from you, Eric. It’s nice to see that you are still active here as always. This is certainly something to be said for consistency. I don’t do much travelling these days, but was convinced by a friend to go on this trip. I think it did me some good. Ladan is just a work acquaintance, so I doubt I will be revealing my secrets to her anytime soon.

Very nice to hear from you as well, Sandy! It’s funny you should mention potential missteps as the thought occurred to me after my last post that perhaps I have stepped outside of those thorns of protection. If so, I think I am in line to get back inside. When chaos reigns around us it is easy to get pulled into it. And the road back is not an easy one. But I hope that I’ll be all the stronger for it in the end. There is no way to change the past. We can only work on our inner lives in the now, and hope for a better future.

The thorny bush also led me to the Jesus’ Parable of the Sower:

“A sower went forth to sow, and it came to pass as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside to be trodden underfoot and devoured by the birds of heaven. Other seed fell upon the rocky places where there was little earth, and immediately it sprang up because there was no depth to the soil, but as soon as the sun shone, it withered because it had no root whereby to secure moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, and as the thorns grew up, it was choked so that it yielded no grain. Still other seed fell upon good ground and, growing, yielded, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold.” And when he had finished speaking this parable, he said to the multitude, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (UB, 151:1.2)

I think that the good ground Jesus speaks of here is natural goodness and appreciation of truth and beauty. Though the truth is offered freely to all people, not all will yield the fruits of the spirit. But the details of parables are not to be taken to literally. Afterall, there are exceptions to every rule. Perhaps a few of the seeds that fell among the thorns can still yield little yellow flowers.
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

Post by Sandy »

Hi Jonathon,
When chaos reigns around us it is easy to get pulled into it. And the road back is not an easy one. But I hope that I’ll be all the stronger for it in the end. There is no way to change the past. We can only work on our inner lives in the now, and hope for a better future
Yes that is so true. I too hope the experience the thorns provide will in time do me good.

You reminded me of something I remember reading in the Urantia book which goes into detail of Jesus work. I found a paper surrounding this very parable, The sower, which I believe may have been the first use by Jesus of Parables in his ministry. I always loved reading as the apostles discussed and debated what the Master may have meant when he spoke.

I thought this might interest you and some of those who read and are interested in reading more about the sower.
https://www.urantia.org/urantia-book-st ... ng-seaside

Here's to a new year of drawing closer to the Divine. :bana: :sunflower:

xxSandy
“We measure and evaluate your Spiritual Progress on the Wall of Eternity." – Guardian of Destiny, Alverana.
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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I realized last night that the thorny bush was also located by a roadside, and in rocky terrain. Which gets me to thinking that no matter where the seeds land, there is still hope for everyone. It is great when the seeds land on good soil and the fruits of the spirit spring forth while we are still in the flesh. However, we do not know the circumstances of other people’s lives. I think the potential of many people will remain dormant until they are on the mansion worlds. It is the function of these worlds to correct our deficiencies and help us grow into what we are truly meant to be. Just a little faith, and perhaps a whole lot of mercy, can get us there. Therefore, we shouldn’t give up on anyone, including ourselves. Also, the seed sowers should not concern themselves too much with the results of their sowing. It is easy to get discouraged when we do not see the results of our labour. This is very often the case for people working to propagate the teachings of Urantia. The results of this sowing may not reap a great harvest for many generations to come. However, it will never come to fruition without the efforts of the sowers of today.

Sowing the seeds of love,
Jonathan
”The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.” ~ Arthur C. Clarke
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

Post by happyrain »

There's also something to letting others shine, and so, I am enjoying your presence and this very appropriately titled thread.
:happy
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

Post by Sandy »

Sowing the seeds of love
You, dear Jonathon, are a master gardener in the above. :happy Love cannot be contained and shines forth even across great distance to the intended beneficiaries.
This world is difficult and sometimes hope is in short supply, but the little yellow flower in the photo you shared gives me hope. Hope for me, the world and life beyond death where we will grow into beings we can scarcely imagine with our mortal minds.
Thank you :happy

xxSandy
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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I do sow the seeds as I’m able, but I don’t consider myself to be a master gardener by any means. However, the Master Gardener is in us all so perhaps someday I will be one.

I came across a term today at work that stood out to me. The term was ‘deadheading.’ In the context of my work, it’s when there is no flow to a pump, so it recirculates the same liquid over and over. This causes the liquid to heat up and can damage the equipment. I liken this to my thought patterns sometimes. I can get stuck in ruts of negative thinking and I know this is not healthy. Sometimes we forget to open the valve and let the living water flow through us. I think forgiveness is the actuator of this valve. But how do we forgive people when they are not sorry? How do we love those who despise us? I guess we can only stand ready to forgive sometimes.

The term ‘deadheading’ is used in other contexts as well. In the transportation industry it’s when flight crews are transported as passengers only to the location where they begin their duties. How many of us are just deadheading through this life I wonder. Am I one of them? Has anything I’ve done here really mattered? Or is the whole point of this life just to get us through to the next where we begin our real lives? I would like to think that I have collected a few gems of eternal value, but still doubt myself a lot. Time will tell.

The term ‘deadheading’ is also used in gardening, which is what made me think of it after reading your post. It’s when the gardener removes wilted and dead flower heads to foster new growth. Buttercups remind me of my childhood. We used to hold them up to each other’s chins and if the light reflected from the flower to the skin it meant that the person liked butter. I think the yellow flower experiences mostly add up to the fact that I am still juvenile in a cosmic sense. I have yet to grow up into spiritual adulthood. I know that we all grow at our own pace and that I have to be patient with myself. But perhaps it’s time to remove some dead flowers to allow new ones to grow. Or should I leave that to the discretion of the Master Gardener? I sure wish I had all the answers.
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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Hi Jonathan,

I hear much disappointment in your words towards yourself and your perception of where you stand in regards to spiritual progress. The very fact that this is laying “heavyish” on your mind tells me that you are in the top 10 percentile of spirit leaning mortals on Earth. It isn’t a race to eternity and perfection and the very knowledge that lifts us can also cause our minds disappointments towards our own ability to jump through what, on paper, looks to be nice big forward facing “hoops”. Well they are to a certain extent...but we must take into account our human mind and the generations upon generations of conditioning that causes us to arrive at this point in history. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to think angry negative depressed thoughts then uplifted, positive, hopeful, trusting thoughts when adversity hits? It is so extremely easy to spiral downward and then it feels like climbing Everest to resist the dark vortex. We have been conditioned to be fearful and expectant of disasters and calamity and in some ways even with our nice large discerning brains we have become rather short sighted as a species, putting all our stock in the here and now and what we can touch, and what makes sense to most of the mortals we share our lives with.

So yes, I think it is difficult to really see ourselves as the Divine see us...We are loved just as much and more than, for instance a wise and loving human parent loves their child. I adored my precious baby son. I did not berate him for not knowing how to walk or talk or color in between the lines. I knew it was a learning process and it would take repetition and time. How much more would the God of the substance of the universe love His/Her children and why would the Divine back turn from us if we in our young state misinterpret signs, life and spirit around us.

In similar manner and to a far greater extent we are seen as universe youngsters who are just beginning to play with others in the sandbox of eternity by our local universe helpers. We are certainly not berated for our misunderstandings of ways and means of things we have never experienced...and as we do begin to strike out with our minds and hearts and souls we are nurtured and picked up and set on our feet time and time again. It is unconditional love...pure and simple. We do not have to turn water into wine or speak in a dozen celestial tongues... we practice love and we practice getting better at things like forgiveness of ourselves and others. Oh boy that's a tough one. In this moment we may struggle to forgive someone for something very damaging to ourselves, others and country...but someday we will be able to bet a hundred "Melchizedek bars" on the fact that we have learned that very difficult lesson. (Melchizedek bars are a little joke between George and Geoff many years ago...)

Jonathon, as I look at you and your words written in the posts on this board...it is obvious that you are being guided within. You may not be where you want to be yet...none of us are...but you are on pace to leave a indelible mark upon your exit from this world...if it is only one person who has grown and found encouragement and comfort in this world would that be enough. As the ripples of love spread...one act of love can create unimagined loving consequences... things that change the fabric of our backward world from the ground up and in large or small ways affect generations. You are enough just as you are in this moment.

I for one, and I am sure I am not the only one, am pleased to read your deep thoughts again as it allows me to stop and think a long side you and examine my own ways and means... it nurtures a desire to try a little harder and root out that which does not belong within anymore and then replace the void with something eternal, bright, shiny and blessed... Your yellow flower concept is anything but simple. Within that golden glow of the Buttercup is more than a person who likes and eats butter... it is the beauty and promise of the light that is ours in the most uncommon of places and ways... and it is always "forever and a day" there for us.
You are teaching us to see with the eyes of the soul... thank you. :love

xxSandy
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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Hi Sandy,

One thing is for sure, you never disappoint me. Thank you for your wise and compassionate words. Surely, if Job had you as a friend, he would not have suffered as much as he did. Though my story is not much like Job’s, I too have felt abhorrence of myself. In the Urantia Papers, Jesus refers to this feeling as a spiritual height, which surprised me somewhat when I came across the passage (Paper 148, 6.3). But I now trust that I was feeling exactly what I should have been feeling. Some may look at self abhorrence as a low point, but it does prevent us from exalting the self. I think self love is required to get us through this life. However, the self does eventually have to be surrendered, so we should not become too attached to it. I actually look forward to the day when I fuse to become an entirely new being. I know this will take a long time, but I do like to see things to completion. So, I plan to do all that is required of me to achieve this, step by tiny step. Though we may misstep and fall down sometimes, we must remember that in time we will ‘fall back up again’, as Susan Crowe sings about in this song: https://youtu.be/W1ymwBWsr-I

Take care,
Jonathan
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

Post by Sandy »

I loved the song, "I Fell Back UP". I am still hearing it as it resonate inside my head and heart. Thank you Jonathon.
Here's to falling back up as many times as it takes until we reach our eternal goal. :cheers:
:sunny:
xxSandy
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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Tonight is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. This is the shortest day and therefore longest night of the year. I’m reminded of a story I heard this year. A family was travelling on a country road at night in a very remote location when they hit a pothole and got a flat tire. The sky was overcast so it was extremely dark without even the light of the moon. This made changing the tire very difficult, as they did not have a flashlight and this was before smartphones. However, one of the kids had their Nintendo Gameboy with them. The father asks the child to point the screen at the tire and sure enough, that dim little light was enough for him to get the job done. You see, in extreme darkness, even the dimmest of light can go a long way.

So tonight I’ve decided to let my dim light shine again in hopes that it might be seen against the darkness of the night. When I was here last I felt that I had to say goodbye for a time. But I think of this group often and still read the daily messages. I still get the time prompts too. The number 52 has been following me around for quite awhile now. And of course I still see the yellow flowers. Yesterday morning the sunrise made the sky a beautiful pink colour. Then when I turned on my computer to start my work, I was surprised to see that the screensaver was a picture of a pink sky. Under that pink sky there was a field of yellow flowers. It brought a smile to my face as these little ‘coincidences’ usually do.

Anyway, I just want to wish everyone a very happy holidays! May the love we give light our way through the darkest of places.

God bless,
Jonathan
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

Post by happyrain »

Jonathan! :bana: :bana: :alien: :alien: :bana: :bana:

Thank you for all the blessings! It's a PLEASURE reading your words and feeling your gratitude for all that is.

We're a small family here after all. I consider you a part of it!

Merry Christmas Brother

-Eric
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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I saw some little yellow flowers today and thought of you, Jonathan. (Yes, can you believe my dad's nursing home/rehab center has planted yellow pansies in a bed and they were blooming their little hearts out in January.)

I so appreciate your sharing your light with us...and it has never been dim. I think all of us need to step back sometimes and rest and regroup with spirit. Sometimes it's a couple of weeks or sometimes a couple of years. Sometimes, I think Spirit leads us in seemingly different directions to assist our spiritual growth allowing us to blossom within a new "construct."
I suspect, despite all the belief differences, that we are all going the same way. LOL Just hopping on different makes and models of "spirit vehicles" to arrive at our destination.

Anyway, it is so good to see your light again! :sunny:
xxSandy
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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Hi Sandy,

Thanks for your kind words. I hope your father is comfortable in his new pad. Perhaps the yellow pansies blooming in January is a good sign that he’s in the best place for him right now. It’s really great that you were able to care for him in his own home for this long. And I’m sure he will still need you while he’s living in the nursing home.
This has me thinking how nice it would be to have a daughter.

Last year I moved into an older home with well developed gardens. When everything came to life this past summer there was a lovely patch of buttercups all around the front step and along the foundations of the house. It gave me a good feeling to see them there. Then later in the season the beautiful blue hydrangeas bloomed. I think they were my favourite. There’s also a rose bush in the back. And believe it or not there are still green leaves on it in January, covered in snow. I didn’t know how hardy the rose plant was.

I think the world would be a better place if more people took the time to appreciate the little things like the beauty of a flower. Simple little things are important too.

Jonathan
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Re: Little Yellow Flowers

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Hello again Jonathan,

Your new already established home sounds wonderful. The garden and the yard that came with a home would be the first and most important thing for me, especially as I am getting older, I may not have the time to see the long-term results of my garden creations. LOL, I sound like I am tottering around. No, not so, but I guess I am thinking of the time trees and some bushes need to be in their full glory. Thankfully God has given me a sturdy body with strong legs. I am always telling my mom that, as she worries about me whenever I do something physical for instance shoveling snow or hauling branches to the garden pile out back. I tell her, that a person cannot live in Northern Ohio for 20 years without learning how to move snow properly. :) I try not to worry her, but sometimes a person must do what they must. :) ( And, of course, it feels good afterward, knowing you still got it. ;) :D )

My dad loves blue hydrangeas too. This year his beautiful bushes did not do well. They were very late blooming, not until October. Everyone here blames it on a very late deep freeze that happened last Spring. Some bushed died as a result. Thankfully, my old friends, the 60-year-old Boxwoods, survived the freeze. My brother and sisters considered maybe having to remove one of them this summer to build a ramp but we came up with a better solution for parents, a lift, which surprisingly was cheaper than the ramp would have been...(and a lot more fun. :lol: )

I am rattling on this morning. Sorry about that. I am so happy to hear about your garden, though, Jonathan. You inspire me. :sunflower:

hugs,
Sandy
“We measure and evaluate your Spiritual Progress on the Wall of Eternity." – Guardian of Destiny, Alverana.
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