Becoming Perceptive · Words

Yes! No! by Mary Oliver

Yes! No!

by Mary Oliver

Original Language English

How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted trout
lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the earth. I
think serenity is not something you just find in the world,
like a plum tree, holding up its white petals.

The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, like
small dark lanterns.

The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.

How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out

Yes! No! The

swan, for all his pomp, his robes of grass and petals, wants
only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier
is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy
rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better
than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work. (emphasis added by Attention to Life)

— from White Pine: Poems and Prose Poems, by Mary Oliver
Becoming Perceptive · Words

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

WILD GEESE by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
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.

Becoming Perceptive · Words

Wabi Sabi

“Nature is the home of miracles. Complex growth, stories of resilience, ephemeral beauty emerging and evaporating. When we take time to stop and look, each one of these gifts reminds us to pay attention to the fleeting beauty of our own lives.”

–from Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life, Beth Kempton, 2018

Synchronicities

Lucky!

No sooner than I say I will start to record synchronicities than I experience one. On my walk this afternoon I had just passed the area where I exhorted the the City of Durham to trim the bushes dangerously blocking one lane of the American Tobacco Trail, when a bicycle came up behind me. I glanced around to reassure the rider that I was aware of him so that he could safely pass when he spoke: “Are you Anne?” Well that took me by surprise. It turned out it was the fellow who supports the American Tobacco Trail on Instagram and Facebook and had requested to reuse some of my trail photographs. We chatted a bit and I confessed that he was the first person to recognize me on my walk. He kindly complimented my photographs and we went on our respective ways. I was en route to pick up a few groceries and on my way back, I stopped waiting for the traffic light to turn thinking about the incredible unlikelihood of being spotted by someone I had never met during a walk along the 22 miles of trial when I looked down and saw this beauty; it was at the same spot where @drpconnelly and I had parted after our chance encounter. It was my lucky day!

 

Synchronicities

Synchronicities

In an effort to try to attune myself to synchronicities in the world, I have added it as a category here. I will try to pay attention and document them here. Synchronous events always give me pause and make me wonder so it will be good to remember them. If past ones come to mind, I will note them as historical.