Opening Reflection:

Landscape

Isn’t it plain the sheets of moss, except that
they have no tongues, could lecture
all day if they wanted about

spiritual patience? Isn’t it clear
the black oaks along the path are standing
as though they were the most fragile of flowers?

Every morning I walk like this around
the pond, thinking: if the doors of my heart
ever close, I am as good as dead.

Every morning, so far, I’m alive. And now
the crows break off from the rest of the darkness
and burst up into the sky—as though

all night they had thought of what they would like
their lives to be, and imagined
their strong, thick wings.

“Landscape” by Mary Oliver, from Dream Work. © The Atlantic Monthly Press.

Chosen and read by Nancy L.

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A few photos from an abbreviated posting…

The colors and textures of this coneflower shouted joy and wonder!

There were many seed pods today… those just forming and those that were brown and dried and dying… they spoke to me of the cycles of life… of living and dying and rebirth, and how the seeds would drop in the fall to be reborn in the spring!

Photos by Nancy L.