Altars - the Mimosa Tree

I have a new mind game. The mind-body connection has become more and more understood, with or without the adding of spirit, and to set the mind in a good gear in the morning I every morning write down three things I want to do over the day. Not have to do, and this is important, just want to dos. It's a simple game, but can do wonders for the mind which in its turn generates another kind of energy to the body than to-do-lists can ever do. These things have to simple enough and most of all doable, but I may not know the impact of them. Most of all they have to spark a feeling of: "Yes, there is something here, some kind of life enhancing spark." This is where spirit loves to come into play. I often don't know why I want to do these specific thing, but they often add a little something to the whole of this thing we call life and not seldom quite a bit. Often they result in things I need but don't know why with a calculating mind alone.

Mimosa Tree, by highway 59, Mississippi

The other day one of my want-to-dos was to bring home something I needed for my bedroom altar. Not knowing what this something would be, just to liven it up a bit. The altar needed to be changed up to begin with and as is needed with most changes, I had started with taking something away. 

Looking at me from our bedroom altar was a small dried alligator head. You don't have to be a Feng Shui expert or know that much about energy medicine, or psychology for that matter, to realize that staring at the open gape of a predator with a fifty something sharp teeth before you go to sleep and seeing it first thing you wake up may not have the most soothing impact for neither body, mind nor spirit. It's a beautiful little head though, and I moved it safely over to another spot less directly related to morning and bedtimes' in-between, delicate moments.

My Michael and I had decided to take a day trip. We had originally planned to do an overnight camping, but the forecast was rain, thunderstorms, and more rain. So instead, we did a drive with no clear destination other than getting a better picture of possible routs out of New Orleans in case this years hurricane season would turn out to be bad. Which is predicted. Very aware that we so far have been lucky weatherwise, we have made a vow to each other to this year be decently prepared for any scenario. Something anybody should do in any place and climate of course, especially when prospects of potentially weather scenarios range from inconvenient to outright dangerous. Now, here's a tip nobody needs, since anybody with half a brain could have figured this out all by themselves; if you're planning to take a relax day with your love, imagining flood catastrophe scenarios together may not be the most unwinding activity.

Nevertheless, we trooped on and stopped close to the highway, right after entering Mississippi, to stretch our legs. There wasn't much to see but some trees and brushes and a gate with clear declarations that it was closed for anything but private traffic. The trees were mostly mimosas, a tree whose flowers is easy to love but personally I actually think the leaves are even more beautiful. I don't like breaking branches for anything but clearing an area and anything picked would dry out before we made it home anyway, so I hesitated. It's mostly brush, maybe I should take one ... I thought to myself, but hadn't even finished the thought when I was interrupted by Michael who stood beside me with branches in hand, flowers and all.

"Is this what you wanted?" he asked.

Well, yes, it was. I just didn't know yet that it was also something I needed.

Soon thereafter we stopped by a Mississippi welcome center. Very sweet men greeted us and I picked out some brochures. A whitehaired sheriff cleaned one of our front lights swearing that the liquid he used would clear the dimness that we had thought was scraped into the plastic. Which it partially did. Can't complain about Mississippi's first impression that particular day. The cleaning fluid smelled for miles though.

When we came home I read up about the mimosa tree. I'm not a herbalist but my admiration for mother nature's ingenuity is an ongoing love story. Turned out that the mimosa tree, bark, leaves and flowers, is a well respected medicinal herb in traditional Chinese medicine among other herbal medicinal systems. Among a multitude of benefits the mimosa tree is said to elevates mood, to help regulate healthy sleep cycles and in addition it is considered to be a potent aphrodisiac. Well, if I wanted the perfect symbol for my bedroom altar I couldn't have made this up. Also turned out that dried mimosa leaves are just as beautiful as fresh one and they are now leaning against a crystal and are the first thing I see when I wake up. Which is of course a wiser choice for the mind than a predator's toothed jaw. But if I'm talking magic; there's also a basic energy around mimosa that is sweet and calm.

The notions that everything is energy and that everything is connected are at the base of any spiritual work. These notions change everything. What they don't do is automatically change the premises for physical reality, which is usually one of the most common misconceptions about people who are into metaphysical stuff. That we think that they do. That is usually not the case, that's a mix-up with magic in Harry Potter. But these notions do make the ideas around physical reality more fluid and, as mentioned, more connected. They also, sometimes, make life somehow make more sense, in a nonsensical, but life enhancing, way.

Full moon is upon us, this one is called Flower moon and sometimes Green leaves moon, which is life enhancing in itself. It so happened that one of those brochures I picked out at the Mississippi welcome center was a very beautiful poster of local wild flowers. I put that one up on the bedroom wall, creating some more sweetness in this area.  I just might make a tea out of the dried mimosa flowers. Either way the leaves will do their work on my altar just by being there. Happy Flower moon.