Friday, August 07, 2015

Blessing

The Monsal Trail has been a blessing lately. When the world feels as if it is falling apart, it’s good to get on my bike and go.

And I saw something new. I was sitting on the edge of the Trail looking out at the valley and then I looked up and saw unripe hazel nuts, something I’ve never seen before. They were beautiful.

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I’ve had two rainy rides on the Trail this week, and both were pleasant. Yes I came home soaked, but it was warm rain, and light.

One time I stood under the tall trees and felt so comfortable out there in nature with no-one else close by and tried to remember a snatch from a Mary Oliver poem. It plagued me all day. I checked with Megan later what it was and she knew straight off…the last lines of a poem called Black Oaks:

…Today is a day like any other: twenty-four hours, a

little sunshine, a little rain.

Listen, says ambition, nervously shifting her weight from

one boot to another -- why don't you get going?

For there I am, in the mossy shadows, under the trees.

And to tell the truth I don't want to let go of the wrists

of idleness, I don't want to sell my life for money,

I don't even want to come in out of the rain.

1 comment:

  1. Oh that Mary Oliver! Such great value...saying the almost unsayable with such precision. I had wanted to comment yesterday but life picked up speed: but how I agreed! I often think of life in terms of quantum physics ( schrodinger's cat and the issue of observed particles changing when observed) and so I think that when we view with hope we actually are changing something; when we allow for the possibility of change , that change immediately starts even if that small change is invisible and stays invisible for the longest time.

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