My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
What is it about
mws
a cloudless sky that
holds my attention?
Maybe it’s the blue
that melts from dark
to baby blue.
Maybe it’s the mystery
surrounding me,
holding me present.
Maybe it’s the sacredness
of nature unfolding
its beauty before me.
I could not be a poet without the natural world. Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.
Mary Oliver
I’m rather new to poetry, in both reading and writing. Primarily because I did not understand it, nor did I put the effort into learning what it was about and what it could teach me. It just wasn’t time yet in my life. Now it is. Some of that slow seduction could be spending more quality time in the natural world, or as Mary suggests the temple. I like how Maria Popova says it here. Having said that I want to thank all of you who read and maybe even understand my attempts at writing poetry. But not today!
Another morning and I wake with thirst
Mary Oliver
for the goodness I do not have. I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has
given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked
and hunched over my books past the hour
and the bell; grant me, in your mercy,
a little more time. Love for the earth
and love for you are having such a long
conversation in my heart. Who knows what
will finally happen or where I will be sent,
yet already I have given a great many things
away, expecting to be told to pack nothing,
except the prayers which, with this thirst,
I am slowly learning.
The great Way is easy,
Tao Te Ching – Verse 53
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.
When rich speculators prosper
While farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn-
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.
I believe poetry is very old.
Mary Oliver
It’s very sacred.
It wishes for a community.
It’s a community ritual, certainly.
And that’s why, when you write a poem,
you write it for anybody and everybody…
It’s a gift to yourself,
but it’s a gift to anybody who has a hunger for it.
Be still, my soul, and steadfast.
May Oliver, The Gift
Earth and heaven both are still watching
though time is draining from the clock
and your walk, that was confident and quick,
has become slow.
So, be slow if you must, but let
the heart still play its true part.
Love still as once you loved, deeply
and without patience. Let God and the world
know you are grateful.
That the gift has been given.
I’m beginning to accept aging as more of a constant companion than someone to avoid. Nor do I live in a fantasy that it will go away. Aging now walks with me every day and walk at that slower pace. Some days I feel the grief of losing that walk that was confident and quick in my life, as Mary says in her poem. Yet, in this season of my life I am grateful for the gift of the life which has been given. What a gift it is to slow down, be present to life, fully experience and enjoy it. So my simple prayer this morning is that I may love as never before. The world needs more love! Why not let a spark begin with me.
I began a crock pot of 15 bean soup this morning. Well there are more than 15 beans in it, which will be ready about 1:00 pm if you wanna come over. May you have a wonderful day, filled with a heart of gratitude!
I come for the silence heard in the ground of my being
mws
which brings awareness of the gift of life.
As this gift unfolds,
the sun rises over a cloudless horizon,
a fish quietly rises to the water’s surface
and a quiet prayer is heard in my soul.
This Book of Nature has opened its pages of this new day,
may we silently read each word.
I come here for the silence.
nibbling on grass
mws
black eyes alert to danger
nothing but cuteness