White Butterf lies Elena Mor ris-Britten
White Butterflies Elena Morris-Britten A collection, reflections of an inner world. Inspired by the teaching and message of Prem Rawat.
CONTENTS TIME 1. Like a Drop 2. Mokuy 3. Timekeeper 4. Big Time 5. Two Worlds 6. Message from a Songbird? 7. Sand Talk Reflections 8. Death Beside Me 9. Here I Am LIGHT 10. Always light 11. It’s Not dark 12. White 13. Darkness and light 14. Rising Moon NATURE 15. Adelaide Ginko Tree 16. Cicada Song 17. Moments in the Garden 18. White Butterflies 19. Ordinary Day 20. Solastalgia 21. Unbroken LOVE-EGGS 22. Lovebird 23. Complete 24. Draw This 25. Twin Yolks OCEAN 26. Forever Coming Ashore 27. Floating 28. Two Paintings freshwater and saltwater 29. Christmas Morning 30. Merewether Ocean pool 31. Take Me with You AWAKEN 32. Staying Awake 33. Shedding Skins 34. The Battlefield 35. Once Upon A Time 36. Thin Ice 37. On The Edge 38. To Know 39. To Prem 40. Double Joy 41. Moving Forward 42. Recognition PEACE 43. Prayer for Peace 44. Fulfilled 45. Return 46. Amaroo 47. Bedroom Morning 48. Only One 49. Thank You
The self is the union, the knowable union of the infinite and the finite. Prem Rawat. TIME
LIKE A DROP Like a drop of rain we fall we are here Like the silver pearl raindrop gathered on a nasturtium leaf we too vanish in the sun. MOKUY Yolgnu guardians of traditions and lore, spirit figures from Arnhem Land. Spirits between the worlds past and present inseparable time not linear but a cyclical everywhen. Finite life infinite spirit guided beyond death protected through ceremony continuing endlessly.
TIMEKEEPER Digital or analog held hostage to that tick tick ticking or silent hands moving. My only freedom the pinpoint centre stillness in time with each breath. BIG TIME Moving around on the surface in my-time where everything changes thinking its real. I’m-gone-time And before-I-came-time overlap for the blink-of-an-eye Big-time one constant infinity
TWO WORLDS On the edge of the worlds where the two worlds touch I feel the first quickening In this stillness I feel my beginning Safe like a figure 8 on its side curled-up waiting to be born. The midwife of time waits on the other side. A MESSAGE FROM THE SONGBIRD We are travellers on the timeline travelling backwards and forwards into the past into the future not knowing how to be still distracted by our own noise always travelling. We miss the songbird’s call calling our name as the morning magpie sings the first golden sunrise among forest eucalypts in the stillness of dawn or soft pink fading twilight Step off the timeline stop travelling be still listen.
SAND TALK REFLECTION Returning to ancient tree-rooted time rock, land, sky-time the presence of stillness Sand talks speaking slow-time and deep while on the surface we rush around in our own creation Shallow fast-time screaming time-poor out-of-time screen-time face-time more-time I don’t have time no-time time’s up! There once was a time when we knew how to be in rhythm with our time Each breath the time that gives and measures our existence. DEATH BESIDE ME Death my friend who walks beside me always only a simple breath away reminding me of this precious life the joy of existence reminding me of now.
HERE I AM The disc of time surrounds me with no beginning and no end here time becomes timeless In the centre I am and now I think I know why the whirling dervishes like billowing white silk flowers spin and spin and spin. LIGHT
ALWAYS LIGHT Without light a shadow ceases to exist yet light does not depend on shadow for its existence Somewhere the sun is rising therefore there is always light.
IT IS NOT DARK Close your eyes you think it’s dark but find it isn’t do not ask what is this gentle light? or judge its brightness just be still let it shine. WHITE I am born the voice of time tells a story a very, very long story ancient and timeless this story is mine given to me Now I listen there is only silence I try to write it Words on blank pages yet words are only breath rising and falling upon a page of light pure white.
DARKNESS AND LIGHT Darkness welcomes me for I am surely dark darkness receives me takes me up I am not afraid I feel I’m entering the womb of dawn waiting for the birth of the first morning for I am also light.
RISING MOON An hour rises like the moon a circle round and full golden face clear and still An hour for me phase of the moon quadrants always full yet appearing otherwise always full silent still always full of constant light. NATURE
ADELAIDE GINKO TREE On a hot black weary city footpath fallen flakes gather in gutters ginko leaves thousands of tiny golden fans.
CICADA SONG We all hold our song the song of every living thing and thing unliving Cicada song seven years entombed underground finally emerging to crawl up the bark of the eucalypt into daylight to split open wet body pulsing crumpled wings unfold into bright sunlight for just one day or maybe two just long enough to dry its patterned exoskeleton spread veined glassy wings dominate forest and sky with ancient yidarki drone earth-song to find a mate begin the song again to live a lifetime in light for just one day and breath the same atmospheric particles as me. MOMENTS IN THE GARDEN In rising heat frangipani flowers pink and white perfume the air condensed essence of late summer. A grand orange monarch butterfly dances around the garden among white lace meadowsweet and marigolds searching for milkweed to hide her tiny yellow eggs. A baby blue tongued lizard basks on an orange brick looks with her golden reptile eye and knows I’m there. A new-born baby sleeps in a bed of native violets a milk white Buddha smiles with closed eyes under the magnolia tree.
WHITE BUTTERFLIES They come like white butterflies carried on love’s breeze breath of the divine. I never know when or why out of the blue they come like white butterflies twirling in blue sky or bobbing over the sea I love them pure white dancing joy. ORDINARY DAY Can’t find my glasses never can when I need them A cosy caramel dressing gown feet in socks toasting toes under the heater early morning coffee in a patch of studio sun buttered toast half vegemite half marmalade beyond the glass pane mother-of-thousands peep across the door ruffled heads of sunlit apricot bells hang in clustered bunches A blackbird on the lawn finds an early morning worm wiggling pink the next-door neighbour’s stainless-steel chimney catches sunlight in a silver stripe pointing to the sky sunlight and soft breeze twinkle a spider’s thread silver gold all swaying dancing ever so gently it’s just the beginning of another very ordinary day.
SOLASTALGIA Caparra, Winter a fter the 2019 bushfires. Threads unravelling after the bushfires shedding skins like a snake sadness and grief for this beautiful wilderness the burnt forest majestic eucalypts blue and spotted gums velvet mosses lichen and fern-fringed stream lost twilight fire-flies lizards diamond python cicadas king parrots and scarlet rosellas green catbird yellow robin red firetail blue fairy wren wallabies and possums all incinerated. And my little Caparra cabin secluded retreat to write and paint haven in heaven all burnt solastalgia seeps in. UNBROKEN After the fires forget everything that has burnt let the high wind sweep across the sky cleaning, clearing it all away white ash settles light flakes upon scorched earth. New green shoots upwards the vine’s tendrils reaching into blue swaying nodding dancing in the sky a burnt lantern swings in the wind. And I found the only surviving thing my favourite teacup soot blackened but miraculously unbroken.
LOVE-EGGS LOVEBIRD Let us not break this fragile egg of love or scramble its soft warm golden heart or hard boil its gentle clear cushioning jelly let us build a cosy nest hatch it into a lovebird set it free to fly where it will.
COMPLETE Begin and end at its own beginning to begin again Love for no one in particular no one no thing yet everything Circle of love without a reason Love for being here to simply be complete as a circle. TAKE A PIECE OF PAPER AND PENCIL AND DRAW THIS Twin eggs One the egg of was the other the egg of will be now slide those two eggs across each other halfway shade the overlap yellow for light call it ‘is’ that is the yellow yolk of now
where you exist. TWIN YOLKS Inside this egg life and death kiss in a bubble of light twin yolks the finite and the infinite. OCEAN
FOREVER COMING ASHORE This great curved ocean comes ashore in waves of silver white lace patterns fringe the land in gentle foamy edges caress the sand shiver over tiny seashells even the little pink and white pebbles sing as the wave draws back to the sea. Ocean voice forever singing ocean of light forever moving rising and falling Forever coming ashore.
TWO PAINTINGS FROM BLUE MUD BAY Yolgnu country Arnhem Land A painting of freshwater inland country country to live in country to sleep in gather food in fresh water and eat from freshwater country all water-veins flow to the sea all waters gathered flow to the ocean. A painting of salt water soothes the head and feelings are bound to salt-water ocean of equilibrium saltwater homeland of the heart. FLOATING Floating on the sea breath under the sky breath under the sky coming and going coming and going breath under the sky breath under the sky coming in and going out in and out floating on the sea under the sky weightless on the sea under the sky it’s the breath
under the sky breath and sky entering and leaving entering and leaving umbilical cord to the infinite breath and sky coming and going coming going coming going. CHRISTMAS MORNING Sunrise spreads a silver tablecloth over the ocean stretching to the horizon a sea of stars this Christmas morning.
MEREWETHER OCEAN BATHS Floating on the surface vast skyscape arching above balanced weightlessly between sea and sky floating turning inward towards the centre a deep dive down far far below to reach the rock bottom of my self and while I’m down there collect a few broken shells and little pebbles. Finally reaching them bring them to the surface shining in the sun a handful of lovely pearls. TAKE ME WITH YOU Life carry me let me float on your ocean of love gently rising and falling resting on the breath how could you ever leave me? when you go please take me with you.
AWAKEN
STAYING AWAKE It doesn’t take much to slip into this drowsy unconsciousness to fall asleep into unconscious drowsiness to drown in drowsiness and fall fall into a sleep again and again Sleep that makes itself seem so comfortable a kind of laziness disguised ignorance enticing yet not truly alive or really truthful Awaken! within this fake wakefulness to see clearly and to know again.
SHEDDING SKINS Inside my skin is where I live old skin on the outside cracked and dry shedding like a snake sadness loss grief injustice mistakes dissappointment regrets shedding all the perfect tessellating scales uncountable that formed my diamond-patterned skin each one a hope dream desire a thought shedding and shedding lifting the veils of who I have become who I think I am not without great pain and often deep suffering. THE BATTLEFIELD Sometimes it’s a battlefield the war rages between two forces. Outside illusion sits on the timeline Inside at the centre stillness and silence rein the war rages all around yet inside I’m safe at the centre in timeless peace.
ONCE UPON A TIME Once upon a time A child stood in wonder At the beauty of it all everything was new without a name before long names claimed this perfect creation robbed the power and mystery of all things and measurements stole time After a while all things wonderous and astounding became normal unnoticed gradually unseen The child was no longer a child and the grown-up was lost. THIN ICE I walk on fragile ground on thin ice I call out calling calling There is no answer there is nothing only silence eventually I begin to listen.
ON THE EDGE I’m on the edge of my self about to step off into the unknown towards finding who I am yet I’m not afraid it feels like freedom. TO KNOW To think to feel beneath the shell to be moved under the skin to arrive at the pulsing open heart of it to form thoughts from feelings thoughts in language. Then pare it back to bare essentials and realise there are no words and nothing to say or do just go back to feeling knowing maybe write a song without words find silence to let the heart sing.
MY GUIDE Sometimes everything outside seems very strange an illusion pretending to be real a snail-without-a-shell feeling lost and fragile where would I be without the magnet inside? where would I be without my guide the one who showed me the magnet in the centre holding me keeping me on course always safe bringing me home again and again. DOUBLE JOY In the face of existence when the shock of recognition comes everything shrinks all troubles and thoughts disappear There is only light illuminating joy Then I understand that’s all there ever really was and all there is Oh double joy!
MOVING FORWARD I’m moving forward In love with my life stepping off the timeline crossing the four bridges to practise not knowing what or when sometimes it comes to me out of the blue oh! the pure joy of it! RECOGNITION One Earth spins on its axis in a galaxy of stars One Earth centred at the poles upon this Earth One walks generally unrecognised This One I know although we have never met recognition and love is magnetic as natural as essential as upstream against the waterfall salmon leap and in migration mighty whales are bound to the Earth’s poles as this One Earth spins and One walks upon it.
PEACE
PRAYER FOR PEACE We are all basically done for trumped on the outside like a cracked sea urchin split open all our delicate membranes exposed fried in the sun scabs as soon as they form torn off wounded again and again to bleed and heal and bleed again God would resign satan in jealouse rage surrender at human’s creation this perfect hell on Earth All you have to do is listen to the news hear what’s happening in Gaza and Israel or see it in Ukraine or some other forgotten island of suffering on the face of this earth where the eyes of the world don’t want to look To save myself I listen to the wind and turn my face to the sky to notice a formation of sacred ibis flying home westward in sunset glow and I pray one day we too may return home and know peace.
FULFILLED It is growing quieter now and still between the coming and going of each breath slip into a still place into stillness itself Lids closed looking I glimpse who I am the vessel is full peace flows over the rim and falls in pure joy. RETURN Return to rocks and sand all things return as the spiral of a sea-shell returns to its centre minerals and ephemeral water to the salty ocean all things return to their beginning to what they are.
AMAROO Beautiful place Native Plumb Dreaming Ivory’s Rock a volcanic heart from Permian depths forced up breaking the earth’s crust how many million years ago? ancient core exposed to sun moon and stars reflected in a lake Amaroo Muntanbin valley of love sacred meeting place for true lovers of peace. MORNING Clear soft morning light beams a mandala-lace shadow on white cotton curtains reminding me of a palace in Rajasthan in a picture frame on the mantlepiece shines a young Indian boy reminding me of first-morning light.
ONLY ONE One moon One sun One life One me One you One breath at a time Only One. THANK YOU My life a songline of love travelling from one side to the other across the vast country my life-country back to the ocean my beginning-ocean Thankyou Prem for inviting me to travel with you. the end.