Complete
This afternoon I spent time
With a tiny frog who was very still
On the wooden dock when I approached…
I also saw a Duck with 14 babies(14!)
swimming them away quickly at my
approach.
I spent time with the frog,
whose stillness
I envied...while
I watched the duck swim away,
all babies together.
When the frog tried to dive beneath
the dock in the space between
the boards, he got stuck, back legs
swinging in the air. I freed him
and set him under the dock, whole,
where his stillness inspires me.
My day is complete.
Ripening
A plum sits out
on the kitchen counter’
When I ask
why?
the answer is
“so it can ripen.”
Ah! So ripening needs heat,
needs light, not the dark cold
of the fridge-
So does a person, really –
not dark cold,
but light and heat
pulsing into
life’s fullness
of age and grace.
Early Morning Minute
I stand at
the door
looking out the wet window. Rain
has poured down all night, and drips
are visible everywhere, even
from the needles of spruce and pine,
and the drooping stillness of all
the colorful flowers.
Change never stops. What I see
now will be gone by noon. The sun
will erase these shining drops, offering
light
in shimmers and rainbow colors.
And isn’t it the same
With us all? Here one minute
And gone the next? Isn’t it?
But oh – that minute!
Full of glow and glory, giving
itself to a world waiting
for just the colors, just those –
that grass and flowers
and trees and people bring
for a flash
of time – and then –
and then – make way
for the next glowing light.