Nature: Still Open for Business

Brook, March

Sun lays its mat on the water.
       Stones shine, watersong brightens.
Four trees stripe the brook with shadow—
       subtle bridges
from west to east, winter to spring,
       from nothing to something.

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Living in a shut-down state means most of the places I usually visit are closed. But nature is still open for business, flaunting daffodils and ridges of forsythia, and the tiniest of red rust buds on the giant oaks and elms.

I walk the neighborhood almost daily, and it’s been my time to NOT think about the state of things, and focus on whatever nature is offering up that day. This is a pic I took when I stopped to listen to a local brook.

Initially I found it nearly impossible to make art with a head full of survival plans, grocery lists, and contingencies. But two days after taking the pic, I wrote a poem. I thought I was writing about the shadows that fell so neatly across the brook, but really, I was creating a bridge for myself, a bridge to cross over from artistic blackout back to creativity.

I hope you are well.

~Cheryl

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Monday Morning Mary: When You Need a Reason

 

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When You Need a Reason

It’s easy to say
things happen for a reason
when the thing that is happening
is merely inconvenient
or is not happening directly to you.

Be careful when you offer the words
things happen for a reason
as wisdom or consolation to another human being.
Better to utter the words silently as a prayer
of surrender and acceptance.

Things may happen for a reason
but not necessarily
for one that is palatable
or even discernible.

Things happen as a river happens:
each bead of water following another,
collectively carrying
all that needs to be carried
to sea.

 

The pictures in this post were taken this morning in my neighborhood.

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We had a blizzard in NJ two days ago, leaving close to two feet of snow in my area, more in other places. With the sun shining full this morning, I couldn’t resist visiting these two brooks. I was enchanted by the snow-covered boulders…

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and the sound of water flowing over the stones.

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I almost missed the animal tracks near the water’s edge.

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Spotted this drift along the brook, and it seemed so friendly, nature’s own snowfellow.

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Nothing more magical than the sun sparkling on the frozen brook. 

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Sending some of those sparkles along to you.

 

Mother Mary in snow