Summer slowly departs; cicadas’ rhythmic thrum is fading. The bright crisp choir of crickets’ song accompanies us through early autumn days.  Forest’s light ~ always filtered by the swell of foliate waves ~ saturates every sense.  We are dazzled by this light whose meaning is refracted and articulated with each step.

 This earth-meaning originates within the body of earth Herself. It precedes constructs of the human mind…is delivered through the intelligence of sound, vision, scent, touch. Step outside the door with me and walk into Original Essence.

 

Meaning radiates,

inherent in particle,

wave, chemical collaboration.

This gift is grace that

holds me unceasingly in its thrall.

Each day my heart asks

what is the meaning of

  galaxies of wildflowers

shining in emerald orbit;

landscapes printed into lavender

            turkey-tail mushrooms;

pebbles radiant in evening light;

wine berry’s barb,

wood thrush’s flute?

what does black fly show me

washing her front legs as carefully

as I brush my hair?

 

I listen, while White Branch Creek explains,

uttering psalms through Paleozoic ferns,

then turn to the nations of birds;

the chorus of goldfinches

in treetop aviaries, who

repeat their infinite canon.

 

I ask the breezes who rustle

ever-responsive leaves

            slender wild cherry

            beech’s pleated skirts

            red bud’s green heart

“What news? 

Of what seagoing affairs

do you tell

with your plankton-born air?”

 

Sight, sound, touch, smell

usher the living earth

directly inside my skin.

They are living transformations.

Chrysalides within my soul

they return to life’s primordial ooze,

evolve gossamer wings,

and I arise into sacred meaning.

 

From my book A Litany of Wild Graces ~ Meditation on Sacred Ecology

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Photo Nicolas Pratlong

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https://sharifaoppenheimer.substack.com/p/rewilding-the-human-heart

 

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