A Soul's Limn

Tea and flowers at Elixir in Great Barrington, MA

“What does your soul need to weather the winter?”

“This afternoon it told me that tea makes snow gentler.”

“And your soul, I do wonder, why it rises with the sun?”

“It wakes for the promise of good things to come.”

“What does so help it in passing the days?”

“The sun, a friend, and the world’s smitten gaze.”

“Does your soul seek much when the lights have gone low?”

“Last night it longed simply to hear the winds blow.” 

"And what does it whisper as it closes the curtain?"

"The moon, it seems, is always so certain."

How wonderful it is that any of us can converse with our soul, and the souls of others, during any passing or lingering moment into which we may stumble.

Of This and Other Worlds (A Dose of Observation and Optimism)

Summer Greenery in Brooklyn, New York

We often describe experiences that fill us with awe as “other-worldly.”

The layers of golden orange in the sky, the feeling of vast love for other people that washes upon us at the most unexpected of moments, the reflection of the moon in a lake and the ripples that blur together the murkiness of the water and the clarity of the heavens. All of these things, we often remark, it is as though they are of another time and place.

But these things, we would do well to remember, are our world. They do exist all around us; we are even engulfed in them. 

So though our troubles are many and great, may we sometimes pause and remember that beauty still exists, and love’s forms are all around us.

Oranges in Spain

Flora in Massachusetts