Friday 9th DECEMBER
Day 9
The Swan
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?
– Mary Oliver
How did I feel , in my heart, today as I met my dear friend and confidente and school friend from many decades back and as I received a text from another dear friend with her sharing of a tree she saw on her morning walk . . . its leaves in the light, breathtaking?
And have I finally figured out what beauty is for ?
I can only say I have come a little closer to those questions and as one poet says I am living into the answers.
One thing I do know Nature for my friends and I is saviour . And with my friends we both agree from our deep spiritual awareness, Nature speaks to us as the one who helps show us the way and nature is our chapel, church and cathedral.
Buildings where we once felt secure do nothing now for us compared to the shape, colour, texture, smell, story, feel of nature especially a tree.
And in this beauty is peace. Peace for all the world??
Each of us cannot make that happen. We can only work towards it in the place where we stand.
We can only make it in the person we are and let it radiate out from there and hoping there are enough of us that feel and act that way so that it hits the tipping point for peaceful ways, peaceful answers, peaceful solutions rather than always falling back into fighting and wars. Peace can reign and life is happy for both sides of any conflict when resolutions are worked on.
Paperbarks on my Lake Walk
speak in theirs tones of browns and cream and buff
their conversations stance all unique, feminine and real,
their rootedness, grounding and sense of place
reminding me to be present to every moment of the day
their texture that encourage me to race home and write
and in the sound of their leaves rustling in the breeze
