Like over 6 million other people around the world I'm reading Eckhart Tolle's        " A New Earth."  Even though I am an Oprah fan I felt like I already "knew" about that stuff and living in the now from his previous book and here I am trying to get this website up let alone all the other books I'm reading right now. Then a friend wanted us to read it together so I bought it with no anticipation as if it where a chore. Then I started to read the first chapter " The Flowering of Human Consciousness" and was drawn in with a smile on my face thinking if you want to hook gardeners this is the way to start a book.

      I've decided to share parts of these first five pages with you as my first letter from Gaia. I can think of nothing more appropriate for beginning this series than a new earth brought about by the flowering of human consciousness.

      "  Evocation

      Earth,114 million years ago, one morning just after sunrise: The first flower  ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun. Prior to this momentous event that heralds an evolutionary transformation in the life of plants, the planet had been covered in vegetation for millions of years. The first flower probably did not survive for long, and flowers must have remained rare and isolated phenomena,since conditions were most likely not yet favorable for a wide spread flowering to occur. One day, however, a critical threshold was reached, and suddenly there would have been an explosion of color and scent all over the planet--if a perceiving consciousness had been there to witness it.

     Much later, those delicate and fragrant beings we call flowers would come to play an essential part in the evolution of consciousness of another species. Humans would increasingly be drawn to and fascinated by them. As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose for them, that is to say, was not linked in some way to survival. They provided inspiration to countless artist, poets and mystics. Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from how they live. The Buddha is said to have given a "silent sermon" once during which he held up a flower and gazed at it. After a while, one of those present, a monk called Mahakasyapa. began to smile. He is said to have been the only one who understood the sermon. According to  legend that smile ( that is to say, realization) was handed down by twenty-eight successive masters and much later became the origin of Zen.

     Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in he evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy and love are intrinsically connected to that recognition. Without our fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged., would become like messengers from another realm,like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless. They not only had a scent that was a delicate and pleasing to humans, but also brought a fragrance from the realm of spirit. Using the word "enlightenment" in a wider sense than the conventionally accepted one, we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants.......... "

      " Since time immemorial, flowers..... have held special significance for the human spirit. Like all life forms, they are. of course, temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness. Their special significance and the reason why humans feel such fascination for and affinity with them can be attributed to their ethereal quality.

        Once there is a certain degree of Presence, of still and alert attention to human beings' perceptions, they can sense the divine life essence, the one indwelling consciousness or spirit in every creature, every life form, recognize it as one with their own essence, just as they are unaware  of their  own essence and identify only with their own physical and psychological form.

         In the case of a flower...however, even someone with little or no Presence can occasionally sense that there is more there than the mere physical existence of that form, without knowing that this is the reason why he or she is drawn toward it, feels an affinity with it. Because of its ethereal nature, its form obscures the indwelling spirit to a lesser degree than is the case with other life-forms......

         So when you are alert and contemplate a flower... without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you into the formless.There is an opening, however slight, into the window of the spirit. this is why this "en-lightened" life form has played such an important part in the evolution of human consciousness since ancient times; why, for example, the jewel in the lotus flower is a central symbol for Buddhism......

          Is humanity ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to it the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful , is only a pale reflection? "

       After reading the above I've started to take time in my garden to sit still in the midst of weeding and contemplate a flower, esp if I don't know the name. The more I quietly observe the more I see. The more detail I take note of the closer and more aware I feel to nature and to God.  Since reading 'A new Earth 'I now enjoy it so much when I "catch" my ego rattling around with "fussing" when I'm weeding about every thing from the mess my boys left the kitchen to worry about getting done all I want done and go inside to that zen quite, still space inside myself and just become one with my flowers and allowing myself to be at peace.

          So go find a flower you don't know the name of and sit a few minutes with it, totally taking it in without naming it just feeling your connection. Your life will change.