Tides and Time
Does the clock drive you or do you find another way to measure your progress through life?
Exploration | Family | Poetry
To Leap in the Froth
May I never not be frisky,May I never not be risqué. May my ashes, when you have them, friend,and give them to the ocean, leap in the froth of the waves,still loving movement, still ready, beyond all else,to dance for the world.– Mary Oliver, Prayer It’s been almost a year now, and I think of…
What We Create, What We Leave Unfinished
We create ourselves by our choices. – Søren Kierkegaard In my house there are a hundred half-done poems.Each of us leaves an unfinished life. – Mary Oliver, Thinking of Swirler It’s an oddity in my character, admittedly, that I linger with poetry and well up with emotion over words. After a particularly stunning pink swirling…
Garden and Home | Poetry | Seasons | Travel
Roses Rise
and out of the silent dirtthe blood-red roses rise.– Mary Oliver, Both Worlds The tea roses bloom in abundance in June, and reward you with blooms in bursts of fragrant joy the rest of the season. This is the time when rose petals pile up like seaweed at the edge of the surf, for the…
Culture | Exploration | Hiking | Learning | Lifestyle | Personal Growth | Poetry
Each Leap
It’s funny how things cluster together. Bursts of activity that lump together depending on the place that you’re in emotionally, physically, developmentally. Like jumping rock-to-rock to cross a stream, these places are where we land at a given moment in our lives. Some are easy to identify: “student” to “early career” to “committed relationship” to…
Exploration | Habits | Lifestyle | Music | Poetry
Catching the Wind
Waking up early I dress straight away and head outside for the Spring performance. Birdsong in spring is like no other time of year, and you must be out there early to catch the peak. Soon the tall pines caught the wind and danced together with it in a song of their own. And the…
Something More
“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.” Neil Gaiman This rather cheery quote by Gaiman prompts a challenge of sorts from me. For making something isn’t what makes the world brighter, making something you care about making is what brightens the world. For in the making of something…
Birds | Exploration | Nature | Poetry | Seasons
The Heart of the Bay
Nobody owns the sky or the trees.Nobody owns the hearts of birds.Still, being human and partial therefore to my own successes—though not resentful of others fashioning theirs— I’ll come tomorrow, I believe, quite early.– Mary Oliver, Winter and the Nuthatch Oliver writes of building trust with a nuthatch that eventually learns to eat out of…
Another Dance
“Don’t call this world adorable, or useful, that’s not it.It’s frisky, and a theater for more than fair winds.”Mary Oliver, Where Does the Dance Begin, Where Does It End? When the world show you more than fair winds (this week surely did that), a sprinkling of Mary Oliver poetry soothes the soul. Don’t think I…
Bold
“So long as I am hanging onI want to be young and noble.I want to be bold.” – Mary Oliver, Desire There’s that word again. Bold. I chase it down, let it challenge me. Take a deep breath and get after it yet again. To rise free from care before the dawn and seek adventures,…