I love flowers, besides their innate beauty and grace, symbolically they are profound. Flowers are the tenderest most delicate part of a plant. The fragrance of flowers is amazing, and our sense of smell profound, and we remember fragrances. Flowers feel like bursts of divinity all over a plant, they are the playground of inspiration, and so perfectly attract to the plant what is needed for the highest good. Flowers are the plants most vulnerable part, and within the petals tender caress are held the seeds of growth of the next stage in the plants evolution. Petals for me represent moments. How appropriate for us, our tenderest moments hold the seeds of our growth in their tender caress. A flowers natural state is to open and blossom, and as it is time to release the seeds it holds, the petals themselves are shed, they let go, the moment passes. This opening and blossoming is in its own timing, its own rhythm of the seasons. So to, our natural state is to open our hearts and blossom, to let go, and to release the seeds we hold for the next stage of humanities evolution. For me flowers so beautifully capture the essence of who we are and how we unfold.

Why the Magnolia? The color of this Magnolia flower is heart color; this is the flower of our heart opening. The rich heart color holds within the purity of divinity itself. This Magnolia's petals are dark on one the outside and light on the inner side. Symbolically for me this represents how in every moment (petal) both dark and light, positive and negative, sorrow and joy... are present together. The completeness of every moment comes when we see and honor both, and appreciate both. These Magnolia petals so perfectly remind me that both are joined, and to try to separate them would destroy the petal (the moment). How often do we hold so tightly to things being a certain way, and destroy the very thing we are trying to hold on to so tightly. Instead of seeing the fullness, the completeness of the moment by letting go.

Both sides of the petal are beautiful and the contrast is striking. The space within and between the dark and light sides of the petal, the interface between yin and yang for me represents the playground we can access in every moment. It is the moment by moment interface, the choice to open our heart to connect with the vibrancy, to the love energy that is at the core of everything. Love is the universal ‘glue' that binds everything, breathe it in!

There is richness in the dark side, and as we so often find that when we let go of judgments of the perception of our shadow side, we find pure gold there, we see the perfection and the wholeness. Nature teaches us so much.

Love and Gratitude,

Carol Goddard