Mayday Mayday: A Community Garden Mural Beckons Your Spiritual Consideration

Good morning, Vocal Media and spiritual seekers, this is your Monday Morning Huddle for May 5, 2025!

Today's inspiration comes from a mural in my local community garden. I was out early this morning walking toward a different location I had set in mind when the mural photographed above jumped out at me, beckoning my immediate attention. It was an odd experience because I see this mural nearly every day; I've seen it for years, but today, it was as if the picture came to life, radioing, "Mayday, Mayday."

My spiritual eye responded to the "help help" vibrations and yielded to its calling.

What is this mural?

To gain a deeper understanding, a brief history of its location is necessary.

The mural sits on a brick backdrop on the back end of what was once the Albany Free School. Founded in 1969, the Free School is the oldest independent alternative inner-city school in the United States.

A safe haven for children with special needs, a close-knit environment resembling homeschooling but in a broader concept, a place where "Free" means free to be oneself without judgment- a fortress empowering the spirits of little ones- Marilyn Glover

To date, I don't know who created the mural, but today, I chose to stop fast in my tracks and pay close attention to the messages waving at me within the art.

Here is the theme I came up with, a personal title portraying a deeply embedded narrative:

"Nature's nurture; nurture our children, our future"

Behind the Free School, adjacent to a local community garden, the mural displays mixed artistic messages from children. Many faces, neither smiling nor frowning, mingle with various shapes and nature drawings. Circles, hearts, stars, and squares meet a crescent moon, sunshine, and butterflies in a collage-like appeal that tells me many hands were lent in its making.

The thick, bold interconnecting lines above connect to a larger image of a babe that intently captures my spiritual eye. In contrast, my physical eye cannot dismiss the beautiful green vines growing over hidden images.

My heart speaks "Green," and healing, redirecting my attention to freshly grown green in the foreground.

At this point, my daily spiritual message arrived.

Mayday, Mayday, today is your heyday; heal your inner child to be on your way

As a highly spiritual person, my epiphanies never cease to amaze me. To think I've lived in this community since 2017, and still find newness in what I often mistake for old equations, fills my heart with joy. This joy compels me to share with others, hoping somehow the joy will fill another heart, and nurture will follow.

The Free School tended to all of my children's needs. As a single mother who relocated to the Albany area in 2000, my oldest two daughters found solace within their walls, healing as children of an addict (their father). My younger two found comfort through the kind and caring teachers who supported our family, as I had recently escaped from a very abusive man (their father).

By thinking outside the box, embracing and celebrating socio-economic differences, and huddling together to rally for the abused, the misunderstood, the otherwise outcasted by an all too often poorly educated society, my family and I made milestone headway toward becoming the blessed individuals we are today.

And so again, I share this mural and all its beauty, the obvious and the beauty hidden within its intricate details, as a personal gift.

Admire for yourself and take away from it what you will. Whether any details resonate is purely in the beholder's eyes, but perhaps a more important message awaits within today's Monday Morning Hudle.

Nature always nurtures those willing to hear the call. Growth in green calls to growth in the heart. An inner child holds out their hand. Are you listening? If not, when will you start?

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Thanks for stopping by!

My name is Marilyn Glover. I am a Reiki master, nature lover, and spiritual enthusiast.