I am grateful for living a mundane life.
I appreciate being involved in the lives of those close to me and having the time to get away and into nature occasionally. I like walking in the city and being part of the crowd without standing out. I always have.
There is something exquisite about being present and taking in the world as it comes. I like to listen to the tao, just being quiet in quiet places to hear the sound of the wind or birds.
One of my favorite poets is William Stafford. That’s him in the picture. Here’s one of his poems, 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 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.
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” – T. S. Eliot
