Look deep, deep, deep into nature, and then you will understand everything. — Albert Einstein
Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond
by Mary Oliver
As for life,
I'm humbled,
I'm without words
sufficient to say
how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,
both of these
and over and over,
and long pale afternoons besides,
and so many mysteries
beautiful as eggs in a nest,
still unhatched
though warm and watched over
by something I have never seen—
a tree angel, perhaps,
or a ghost of loneliness.
Every day I walk out into the world
to be dazzled, then to be reflective.
It suffices, it is all comfort—
along with human love,
dog love, water love, little-serpent love,
sunburst love, or love for that smallest of birds
flying among the scarlet flowers.
There is hardly time to think about
stopping, and lying down at last
to the long afterlife, to the tenderness
yet to come, when
time will brim over the singular pond, and become forever,
and we will pretend to melt away into the leaves.
As for death,
I can't wait to be the hummingbird,
can you?
Wander here a whole summer, if you can.
Thousands of God's wild blessings will search you
and soak as if you were a sponge,
and the big days will go by uncounted.
— John Muir
Entering a garden is a spiritual experience. — Isamu Taniguchi
Spirit of the Garden
Taniguchi Japanese Garden at Zilker
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
— Rachel Carson
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