For weeks now, I’ve been walking the path outside my back gate down to the Old Orchard. A group of daisies grows along this path. They stand in the middle of longish grass, among the old gnarled apple trees that have been part of our village for a hundred years. The daisies make me smile as they stand in a little group of 12 or 15, about knee height. Every time I see them, I am again struck by them, standing there, as if they are waiting for me. My puppy runs through them, oblivious, happy already.
Beyond the daisies gentle, true loveliness, what strikes me is their Presence, and by this, I mean that thought I have every time, “There they are again, those daisies.” This is the awareness I have that even while I am caught up in my own little world, lost in my own thoughts, the daisies are there, only waiting for me to walk the path again. This gives me some pleasure for there is a sense I grasp in that moment that while I don’t always feel present, presence is there should I choose to awaken it.
I’ve been thinking about this idea of the daisies and presence in relation to love. Tara Brach suggests that “Love is always available… Even when we don’t choose it, it is always there, waiting for us.” There’s beauty in knowing that just like the daisies, even when we don’t feel loving, love is always there, should we choose it. The only piece we have to awaken is the choosing. The presence to let love be here. We have to choose it, awaken it, give it permission to bloom. Love, then, is like walking the path, it’s a decision to set one foot in front of the other. It’s a lot like seeing the daisies along the path.