• clouds,  landscape,  Mary Oliver,  natural areas,  poems,  quotes,  sunrises

    Starting Tomorrow

    Sunrise at Topminnow Natural Area

    I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
    flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
    as it was taught, and if not how shall
    I correct it?

    Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
    can I do better?

    Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
    can do it and I am, well,
    hopeless.

    Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
    am I going to get rheumatism,
    lockjaw, dementia?

    Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
    And gave it up. And took my old body
    and went out into the morning,
    and sang.

    Mary Oliver, Devotions

    I’ve worried a lot, too. I worry much less at my age because I also finally saw that it never really helped. I’m also a hopeless singer, with most of my practice done in the shower, solo. But, Mary Oliver’s poem has inspired me to stop worrying whether I’m as good a singer as a sparrow and just sing. So, starting tomorrow morning… 😁

  • clouds,  haiku,  landscape,  natural areas,  sunrises,  writing/reading

    Welcome the New Day

    sun rises in the east
    beams of light embrace nature
    welcome the new day

    ms

    Morning sunrise at Topminnow Natural Area. This is one of the newer natural areas and is still not open to the public. The city is presently restoring this old gravel pit and planted about 10,000 wetland shrubs in 2015. It is named after one of the native fish species that will be reintroduced there (plains topminnow). A good start to my day!