In a Cocoon of Love

July 20

I realized I haven’t reflected and written for a long, long time. I feel the need to do it this evening, due to what happened during the past week.

We returned this evening from a 16-day state-tour of Washington, Oregon and Colorado. It was a nice trip that allowed us to explore new landscapes and sceneries, and to possibly set the first marks for a new path, for a new way of life.

I have been reflecting in the past couple days on the meaning of this trip; in fact more seriously since Wednesday when I asked myself, “What are you searching for?” What are you searching for (spiritually) while exploring new (physical) territories?

It looks like we won’t be moving to any of these three states any time soon. So why did we go visit with that ultimate possibility in mind? There is something else at play here, something spiritual, and it is upon me to find it.

The past six days in Colorado have been particularly fruitful from a spiritual perspective. It appears that I conspicuously met Love, in one form or another, every day of the week, starting Sunday evening as we drove up Highway 25 on the way to Fort Collins. I remember the word Love inscribed on the wall of a small white shelter right by the road. The same ‘Love thing’ popped up every day, with lesser or greater intensity.

The most potent day was, by far, Wednesday. In the second house we visited that morning, I came upon a little card in the walk-in closet of the parents’ bedroom that quoted, once I turned it over, a passage from Colossians 3:14:

“And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is Love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony.”

This passage stayed with me all week and created a deep imprint, as if new space had been carved into my being. It is hard to explain but it seemed that this card was there for me to embrace as a new stepping stone on my personal path. I realized that my path is indeed a path of Love and the messages of the week were no coincidences.

In the following house we visited that morning, I engaged in a wonderful and lengthy discussion with a neighbor, well advanced in age, who had spent six years in the Philippines in the mid 2000’s as part of a missionary assignment. He was the treasurer of the Latter Day of the Saints church in a locale 20 miles south of Manila. My family and I had visited the Philippines in 2009 and I could relate well to what he was describing. My discussion with this human being felt light and it seemed that some sort of energy was binding us at a deeper level. As I returned into the house we were visiting, he got back to the business of mowing his lawn. Quite a meaningful, spiritual encounter!

Thursday’s Love message wasn’t as meaningfully human as Wednesday’s. As we were driving east on route 34 toward the Rocky Mountains National Park, I saw on the left hand side what looked like a Jamaican restaurant. The restaurant was located in Loveland, Colorado, and it read, The One Love.

We returned to the hotel fairly early on Thursday and had a quiet evening after doing our laundry. Right before I went to bed, I spent time browsing the internet and reading some messages in my inbox. One of them was a recent newsletter from a colleague and friend. The information she shared was interesting and it was all about her, about what she likes or doesn’t like, does or doesn’t do. As I reflected on what I know about her personal path, it made me think about the way I approach the world, not willingly sharing what concerns me—although this is what I am doing right now! I have always been curious and observant of people’s view of the world, perhaps in order to better understand my own. Was it the thought that I gently took with me on my overnight voyage?

Early the next morning, before anyone else was up, I spent some time in what seemed to be my ‘meditation chair,’ right by the window of our hotel room. As I entered a deeper part of my self, I had a vision of my friend in a cocoon—a cocoon of Love. The vision and the words that came to me were very clear.

As I played with this new concept, I reflected back on the movie we saw in the Seattle Pacific Science Center, The Flight of the Butterflies, that tells the story of the migratory patterns of the royal monarchs. We indeed saw several cocoons in the movie, and one butterfly emerging and morphing out of its temporary habitat.

I also thought about my own ‘cocoon migration’ or transformation, if you will. I have been enjoying my cocoon for a number of months now. There will be a time when I will be out on my own, out of my cocoon. Will it then be time for me to nurture other cocoons—cocoons of Love—for those I love, heal and protect?

The past 36 hours haven’t given way to any other profound realization. The Love signs seem to have subsided as we flew home. Only this morning did I think that my spiritual journey in Colorado was influenced by the presence of the mountains.

Thank you, Mountains!