A detour in Barnes and Noble

I had a couple precious hours after my class before I had to go to work. The decision was made to go to Barnes and Noble.

Upon finding the poetry section, I stared and stared. I wanted to read something new to me. Finally, I asked God what poet I would like. He said, "You would like Mary."

I found Mary Oliver, and picked one of her books. I sat down, opened to the first poem, and read.

What can I say that I have not said before?

So I'll say it again.

The leaf has a song in it.

Stone is the face of patience.

Inside the river there is an unfinished story

and you are somewhere in it

and it will never end until all ends.

Take your busy heart to the art museum and the

chamber of commerce

but take it also to the forest.

The song you hear singing in the leaf when you

were a child

is singing still.

I am of years lived, so far, seventy-four,

and the leaf is singing still.

I was like :O because I was just singing to God the other night on my guitar how I hated to not do what I used to do. Sitting so still for hours in the forest, watching nature pass by. Journaling and writing stories and drawing and reading and just using my attention span to its fullest. I felt those days were gone. But I pick up this little book of poems, and the first page feels like God beckoning me to be who I am more today than I was then.

So away I go.