The Magic of Magnolias

This month's soul story - grab yourself a cuppa and sit with me

Dear friends,

I sit outside under an old magnolia tree every morning.  

It’s the best moment of the day; ritualized magic occurs from the simplicity of mixing ground beans with water, and then sipping it with an 80-year-old companion.

I watch the light rise over her. The noisy miners, sulfur-crested cockatoos, and the little rainbow parakeets wake the neighborhood up with a rowdy start, reminding me that I’m no longer in the gentle folds of those silent Danish winters anymore.

As this choir of chaos turns up the volume with every inch the sun ascends, I notice that the magnolia above me is a quiet tree. It houses the hushed creatures; the insects and the lizards, the clingy vines that always seem to be lonely for her company, and of course, the spiders.

She splits at ground level into several larger trunks, and in-between the crevasse; delicate palm grass, ivy, and ferns thrive in her shady curves.

As I walk toward her, tiny lizard tails disappear into her undergrowth. It’s as if she lifts up her mossy swing skirt and ushers all her children back into the house.

There is the remnant of a white electric wire sticking out of her trunk. It must have been tied around her a long time ago, but she kept growing over it, through it, around it… it’s a part of her- but it has no consequence.

Imagine being that first Magnolia tree who really wanted to create something “abominably” different in this world…

Magnolias are believed to be the earliest known flowering plants, with their fossils dating back over 100 million years. They bloomed before Earth had bees. And according to both biology and evolution - flowers only exist because they can. There is no scientifically proven purpose for them, apart from the undeniable fact that they turn this world into poetry.

Most of my first memories as a child are of flowers. My mother used to dry them out on the hot African dirt. I remember having pastel-colored hands from dipping baby’s breath and hydrangeas into pots of dye and then drying them out on an old white bed sheet. I remember the final hours of the day spent walking around our garden as the sun cooled down enough to stop and pick the jasmine or marvel at the creamy caterpillar-like flower of the mulberry bush.

Flowers represent the limitations of our scientific minds and yet our inextricable link to the natural world through the universal emotion of awe.

What I think about when I make my morning commune with this Great Mystery of all things, is how beauty begins with bravery.

Imagine being that first Magnolia tree who really wanted to create something “abominably” different in this world (as referred to by Einstein). A kind of splendor that would bring people together over commonality and goodness. Imagine the bravery it would take for us to bloom so vulnerably, not knowing if our beauty would be received. And while we are imagining - what do you think the other trees thought about primordial Magnolia’s enigmatic white, pollony bloom? If trees could laugh, I believe this would have been the time that that expression evolved…

In other words, what carries true beauty in this world, is you being you, trusting you, bearing the whole of you with grace, rooting yourself deeply in wild trust; the kind that takes a little bravery in embodying because it asks you to believe that there is nothing wrong with you.

If you know on a somatic level that the ever-expanding seed within you (that happens to be what others call disease, disorder, and trauma) is what makes you grow most glorious, then you will always bloom, shed and regenerate from a deeply rich place.

There is so much we don’t know and can’t possibly know given the limitations of our beliefs (not our minds). But imagine opening up to the fact that you can evolve very differently from the way you predict. If you could just slow down enough to listen to what is calling you from within, what is reaching upwards to meet the soles of your feet as you quietly walk the garden at dusk… What ‘despicable’ wonder could sprout from you and this courageous place?

Create your life differently, dear friends, with the intent to honor that unique seed inside of you that cannot be contained by other people’s words, thoughts, diagnoses, or beliefs. Every good thing that comes into this life begins by being brave enough to express yourself without the coping mechanism of disassociation. How we detach ourselves from our seed, from really feeling and being ourselves is what keeps us judging, limiting, shaming, and separating ourselves from that wise marvel of a Mystery that makes us truly whole.

I’d love to know what brave things you are doing at the moment, and hope to connect with you in the comments if you feel called to share,

Love Sez

P.S. A new meditation will be out this week, if you would like to read about the inspiration behind it - as well as listen to it before everyone else, you might like to consider supporting this space by becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you for all the shapes and sizes of your support.

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