Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Carry me on my way... {2}

Travel.  To & fro.  8.5 hours one way.  Joy in the process.
Contemplative.  Contemplate, wonder at, stand in awe. Be. Amazed.
The way (my way) seeks an ever-expanding level of fluency and grace.
We live in a fantastically big and small world.
 Give more than take; allow future generations the same gift -
Wild Geese ~ Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good. 
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
 In the family of them ...

Monday, May 30, 2011

Carry me on my way... {1}

Barefoot.  Without shoe or sock, sole or stocking.  Unclad, uncovered, undressed.
Grampa called me "Okie".   Through grasses, across gravel, & over dusty trails with nary a shod tootsie. 
Even today, in my grown-up world, it's all about comfort.   Børn flip flops cradle my summer feet when shoes are necessary.  Otherwise, without, I wander.
I've trained, unknowingly, my girls to follow suit.

Daily paths lead me to feel ~ to know the way by touch.  Tactile.  Rough, cold, grooved, cushy ... surface utterances communicated, articulated, understood.

Arriving at a destination fully aware of the pleasures, dangers, bumps and great leaps traversed amidst the trek.