Thursday, January 04, 2024

Poem for Wednesday and Westlake Park Lights

When I Am Among the Trees 
By Mary Oliver 

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It's simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

-------- 

I talked to my high school friends on Wednesday morning -- over a couple of hours, since not everyone arrived at the same time -- which is always lovely. Then I spent the afternoon having my semiannual scanning day, in which all the paper piled up whose contents I want to save but whose clutter I do not gets scanned and recycled. Today this included medical stuff, holiday cards, my new passport, and my old dental records. 

We walked to the beach in the late afternoon, saw many geese, a few ducks, and the two neighborhood eagles. Then we came home for dinner and several episodes of The Morning Show, which is astoundingly good -- I had no idea Jenifer Aniston could act like that, and Karen Pittman and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are amazing. Here are some pictures from the light display in Westlake Park and the 80-foot giant sequoia dressed for the holidays:

2023-12-29 16.41.22

2023-12-29 16.41.49

2023-12-29 16.40.10

2023-12-29 16.40.39

2023-12-29 16.44.21

2023-12-29 16.40.42

2023-12-29 16.54.07

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