The storm which arrived in Ireland and England yesterday and overnight helps us to be more aware of the world of nature and its power. However, it is always there, even in its smallest, quietest elements:
Reading the world
As if it were a book
Written before words —
That sparrow perched
On the withered stalk
In the garden — isn’t
The bird itself
A song to the beloved
Even before it sings?
Gregory Orr, American Poet, 1947 –
photo Linda Tenner
Once in a while
I just let time wear on,
leaning against a
solitary pine
standing speechless…
as does the whole universe!
Ah, who can share
this solitude with me?
Ryokan (1758 – 1831)
The universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, not objects to be exploited.
Everything has its own voice.
Somehow we have become autistic.
We don’t hear the voices.
Thomas Berry
The last few days have turned much cooler in Ireland, and this year’s late arrival of autumn progresses with a little more intensity, with leaves turning colour and beginning to fall. This year the natural world is slow to move towards its conclusion, preferring to hold on to the period of growth and warmth. And yet a different type of growth awaits, with new lessons to be learned.
Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.
Command the last fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.
Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,
and wander along the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.
Rainer Maria Rilke
translated by Stephen Mitchell
A change in the weather in Ireland this morning – gone noticeably cooler – but it still remains bright and clear. A perfect day for a Autumnal walk, to appreciate the changing colours. Tuning into the change in nature’s rhythms is good for our internal sense of balance, as we see that things arise and pass away, and that life cannot be composed only of periods of growth and achievement. However, walking has significant physical health benefits also, as studies show that being out in natural light increases serotonin levels in the brain, as even on a cloudy day the light outside is normally greater than what can be achieved indoors. Thus, a break away from the desk or the computer helps us to let go of some of the stresses that each day brings and see things in perspective:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things
To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty,
and in the same field, it beholds, every hour,
a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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