Yesterday I received an e-card from a student that featured an image of a Quechua guide resting on a carved stone at Machu Picchu. I became intrigued, and while exploring the rest of the photographer’s images I got interested in her bio which sounded like she might be from the same Peruvian shamanic tradition I am part of.

The words on her home page struck a chord with me, since some days it seems as though the journey of self-healing and growth is very difficult. Perhaps I can keep the following in mind when I have farther to travel and the road seems hard.

“The Incas of Peru had an old expression ‘the flowering of my tears’

“This represented the time of fulfillment which came after a long period of difficulty and sorrow.

“Our tears continually water the Earth and finally, after we have cried and cried, after we have let go of so much, after we have passed through the searing fires of initiation and the dark night of the soul, the flowers start to grow. These aren’t just ordinary flowers, they are precious, sacred flowers. Flowers that can only grow after we have passed through a time of struggle and transformation, a time of rebirthing into a new life.”

By Kathy Doore, http://www.labyrinthina.com