A small group of us met under the trees at the Arboretum this morning to celebrate the return of the sun and welcome the season of winter. We were led in a lovely Four Directions Movement welcoming the gifts of the new season and and we shared poetry. It was grounding to be reminded of our connection to the rhythms and cycles of the natural world.
This is the poem that I shared:
Being a Person
Be a person here. Stand by the river, invoke
the owls. Invoke winter, then spring.
Let any season that wants to come here make its own
call. After that sound goes away, wait.
A slow bubble rises through the earth
and begins to include sky, stars, all space,
even the outracing, expanding thought.
Come back and hear the little sound again.
Suddenly this dream that you are having matches
everyone’s dream, and the result is the world.
If a different call came there wouldn’t be any
world, or you, or the river, or the owls calling.
How you stand here is important. How you
listen for the next things to happen. How you breathe.
– William Stafford
