… you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine
Mary Oliver
from
When I am among the trees
.
I have a deep-seated need for times of stillness and silence – always have – but the need increases amid the cacophony of contemporary life. And death.
A lover of poetry, I nonetheless recognise that there are times when compassionate, listening silence has an equally important role in my own life, and in the life of society, and of nations.
I know of several friends who have distinct and affectionate relationships with particular trees. An Acer in my Lakeland garden has long been one of my friends in Nature, and today I have watched and watched some more, stunned at times by sunlight’s appearing as flames of fire amid her limbs. Soul warming. Peace-filled.
May we, that’s to say ALL humankind, learn to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.
.
Amen, my friend, amen xx
Hugs for you, and light, Mimi, across the ocean … 🤗🍂x
Yes, me too. In particular relationships with trees. Thank you!
Thank you, too 🙂🍂
So, so beautiful, Simon! I send you a virtual hug and a poem by our beloved David Whyte in return….
“Winter Apple”
Let the apple ripen
on the branch
beyond your need
to take it down.
Let the coolness
of autumn
and the breathing,
blowing wind
test its adherence
to endurance,
let the others fall.
Wait longer
than you would,
go against yourself,
find the pale nobility
of quiet that ripening
demands,
watch with patience
as the silhouette emerges
and the leaves fall,
see it become
a solitary roundness
against a greying sky,
let winter come
and the first
frost threaten,
and then wake
one morning
to see the breath
of winter
has haloed
its redness
with light
So that a full
two months
after you
should have
taken the apple
down,
you hold it in
your closed hand
at last and bite
into the cool
sweetness
spread evenly
through every
single atom
of a pale
and yielding
structure,
so that you taste
on that cold,
grey day,
not only
the after reward
of a patience
remembered,
not only
the summer
sunlight
of a postponed
perfection,
but the sweet,
inward stillness
of the wait itself.
From “Pilgrim”
‘… the after reward
of a patience
remembered …’
Oh, Lori, yes: thank you for this ‘inward stillness’ … and for soul-connection 🤗🍂 … xx
This was helpful to read and timely. I too need and want stillness and yet, at times, find it difficult to access….my mind and body fidgety, wanting to move, pottering here and there, distracted by the chaos in the world, thinking about others, the “important” to do list……. Enjoying my vitality, my energy to do and landing in myself is something of my journey to navigate.
Many thanks, Karen. Yes! – stillness and silence are not easily accessed – even for those of us who actively seek them. But thankfully the ‘dance of life’ leads us there sometimes – to the places, spaces and human connections we come to know in our souls were meant to be 🙂🌱x