from upcoming book

The sacred lotus reminds us to thrive and stretch to the sweetest edge of survival like the blossoms on the shifting, gravelly bay shore. The lotus roots into rich alluvial mud. Its fertility is sourced from silt and clay valley deposits. It shoots its bloom towards sunlight. It thrusts its long stem till it breaks the periphery of the water, like a giraffe’s neck rising to nip new growth at the top perimeter of acacia trees. And, at the water’s surface, as it meets the earth’s atmosphere, the water lily plant shows off its consummate glory – its multi-leveled layers of wide colored petals that unfurl from center as the day unfolds.