Stick with this to the finish…
Thank you Susan
Category: Life
Lightly child, lightly.
Awake —
What are these quick shots of warmth,
Fractals of forests
That wind through my limbs?
~ Alan Lightman, from Song of Two Worlds
Notes:
- Photo: via Mennyfox55. Lightman quote: Brainpickings
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
Miracle. All of it.
1.
Through the night
the apples
outside my window
one by one let go
their branches and
drop to the lawn.
I can’t see, but hear
the stem-snap, the plummet
through leaves, then
the final thump against the ground.
Sometimes two at once, or one
right after another.
During long moments of silence
I wait
and wonder about the bruised bodies,
the terror of diving through air, and
think I’ll go tomorrow
to find the newly fallen, but they
all look alike lying there
dewsoaked, disappearing before me.
2.
I lie beneath my window listening
to the sound of apples dropping in
the yard, a syncopated code I long to know,
which continues even as I sleep, and dream I know
the meaning of what I hear, each dull
thud of unseen apple-
body, the earth
falling to earth
once and forever, over
and over.
~ Li-Young Lee, “Falling: The Code” from Rose
Notes:
- Source: Photo: MilaMai Photography – Why do stars and apples fall? Li-Young Lee Poem: Thank you Beth @ Alive on All Channels.
- Inspired by Albert Einstein’s quote: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
- Related Posts: Miracle. All of it.
the experience altered him
The musician became a bird lover at the aviary. He tells a story of holding a dying finch one day and feeling overwhelmed by its tiny heartbeat. He had never studied a bird so closely before, never observed its delicate and immaculate plumage, and the experience altered him.
~ Kyo Maclear, Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation
Notes:
- Photo: Forest Lore
- Related posts: Kyo Maclear
Saturday Morning
Silence
will carry your voice
like the nest that holds the sleeping birds.
~Rabindranath Tagore, from Stray Birds
Notes:
Quotes: Your Eyes Blaze Out. Photo: Sarah Treanor with “still life” (via Your Eyes Blaze Out). Find all of Stray Birds @ eldrichpress.org.