“Don’t you imagine the leaves dream now
how comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? ….” ~ Mary Oliver, A Song for Autumn
Do you imagine?
Autumn leaf
Such silence
As deep as I ever went into the forest
I came upon an old stone bench, very, very old,
and around it a clearing, and beyond that
trees taller and older than I had ever seen.
Such silence!
…Sometimes there’s only a hint, a possibility.
What’s magical, sometimes, has deeper roots
than reason…
I sat on the bench, waiting for something.
An angel, perhaps. Or dancers with the legs of goats.
No, I didn’t see either. But only, I think, because
I didn’t stay long enough. ~ Mary Oliver
Are you staying long enough?
Dazzling
Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled —
to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking
into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing —
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do. Mary Oliver
What does it take to be dazzled?
Pine cone
“Attention without feeling, I began to learn, is only a report. An openness – an empathy – was necessary if the attention was to matter…. Dear pine cone, let me hold you as you open.” Mary Oliver
What are you holding?
Wild geese
…”Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.” Mary Oliver
What are you being offered?
Come in, come in
“And under the eaves
and through the walls the squirrels
have gnawed their ragged entrances but it is the season
when they need shelter, so what shall I do?” Mary Oliver
What spaces is God looking to be invited into?
With the Eyes of the Heart 