What the Forest Said

Microseason No. 26, June 10-15

I’ve been trying to tell you:

If you knew yourself

for even one moment,

if you could just glimpse

your most beautiful face,

maybe you wouldn't slumber so deeply in that house of clay.

Why not move into your house of joy

and shine into every crevice!

For you are the secret Treasure-bearer,

and always have been.

Didn't you know?"

~Rumi~

If I had skipped my walk this morning,

I would have missed what microseason number 26 had planned for me:

There was a staring contest with an Eastern Box Turtle. He won, easily.

And to think, I might have missed seeing this living work of art— a butterfly called Hackberry Emperor— with modernist circles of black, yellow, and blue.

Oh and the alchemy of flowers becoming berries! Maybe I ate a few :)

I walk to remember that I belong to something vast and wonderful.

Dear one, you are part of this belonging, too.

Nature is not separate from us.

It is here. It is now.