The moon’s breath

Sunrise this morning.

The morning sings.
The egg-shaped moon
is exhaling clouds.
I breathe in and
exhale a song of my own.
I listen
as the symphony of birds
respond with hymns
of spring.

Stories

In the wheat field.

To argue that the current extinction event could be averted if people just cared more and were willing to make more sacrifices is not wrong, exactly; still, it misses the point. It doesn’t much matter whether people care or don’t care. What matters is that people change the world. This capacity predates modernity.

~ Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Caretaking is the utmost spiritual and physical responsibility of our time, and perhaps that stewardship is finally our place in the web of life, our work, the solution to the mystery that we are. There are already so many holes in the universe that will never again be filled, and each of them forces us to question why we permitted such loss, such tearing away at the fabric of life, and how we will live with our planet in the future.

~ Linda Hogan, Dwellings:  A Spiritual History of the Living World

Thursday’s news

Leaning into the morning.

Without attention, the human sense of wonder and the holy will stir occasionally, but to become a steady flame it must be tended.

~ Huston Smith

Circling back around

Little hands.  Artwork gift for Mother’s Day.

… holiness is made of dailiness, of living life as it comes to me, not as I insist it be.

~ Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years

The queen of flowers

After the rain.

Peonies are old-fashioned favorites of many gardeners because of their spectacular late-spring blossoms.  Each spring new shoots rise up from below the ground and develop into clumps of large leaves.  Its name means “healing,” and this embodies its protective energies.

… The peony does have some interesting folklore.  Its roots were used to carve amulets because of its protective energy.  If stormy weather arose while on a boat, a peony was burned like incense and the rough weather would calm.  To the Chinese, the peony is the queen of flowers and was always associated with the summer season.  They have grown peonies for 2,000 years.

… Some traditions tell us that the peony was created by the goddess of the moon to reflect her light at night.  Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, alignment with this flower helps your own inner sun reflect out into life more distinctly.  It helps to cleanse the aura of negative energies and it reminds us that the manifestation of any healing and artistic abilities will be beneficial now and that opportunities to use them are at hand.

~ Ted Andrews, Nature-Speak

A Monday meander: Wild and green

Hostas on a rainy day.

I believe that if one fathoms deeply one’s own neighborhood and the everyday world in which he lives, the greatest of worlds will be revealed.

~ Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution 

You can’t know who you are until you know where you are.

~ Wendell Berry