OldSoul.blog

A lifetime isn’t long enough for the beauty of the world.  [Mary Oliver]

We have just returned from a few days away in our caravan.  Camped beside the lake in Nagambie, Victoria surrounded by the sound of birds, frogs, the gentle lapping of the lake against the bank, an occasional human voice, the wind in the trees, the moisture from the morning fog dripping off the leaves … … every bit of it so peaceful and picturesque, so restorative and wonderful.  By which I mean full of wonder.  It’s the wonder that restores the soul I reckon!  Oh to be so childlike that I never lose the awareness of the nearness of wonder!  Echoes of a wisdom saying from Jesus: Unless you change and become like children … [Matt 18:3].  

A lifetime isn’t long enough for the beauty of the world.  [Mary Oliver]

May I learn to live every moment as a moment of wonder … …

[Photos by Heather Brooker]

WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES

by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay a while.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, 

“and you too have come into the world to do this, 

to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”

May I learn to live every moment as a moment of wonder!

David Brooker.

16^th August 2024