#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

The leaves you show uncurl like tiny fists

and bear small button blossoms, greenish white,

that quicken you. Now put your roots down deep;

draw light from shadow, break in on earth’s sleep.

~ Roy Scheele, excerpt from “Planting a Dogwood”

This morning I knew I could walk in any direction and see spring wildflowers and blooms. So, I let my feet choose their way. My feet walked me to the lady slippers, now blooming full on pink. And my feet walked me past the wild dogwood tree, all white with blossom and rusted edges of the blooms, the way wild dogwood goes. It was warm and windy and dry and I felt very busy, with a crowded day after many crowded days, and I thought of all the things I felt a need to do, and I shut out all that mind talk and said to myself, this is what matters now. This is free time to see things, be touched by beautiful, mysterious plants and trees and noise and fragrances, and very much also, to be moved by the view of trees and leaves reflecting in the brook and river and streams, and surprised by the many snakes that shake the long grass and the frogs that jump from the edges into the pools with a splash and the mallards, surprised by us, quacking and flying away. And this turned out to be my first walk. The girls went out in the afternoon and I went too, ready for a break from sitting and writing. We quacked along like the ducks at each other. It’s a wonderful intimacy and conversation we keep having on these walks; settling concerns, talking over possibilities, comforting and encouraging each other, and the dogs too. Always the dogs. Tonight I attended a Zoom webinar my youngest led, on Playback Theatre, hosted by Playback North America and young actors. I taught her Playback, with her friends, when she was in elementary school. And now she’s teaching playback. On my instagram feed of the picture of the dogwood today, a friend wrote: “A feel good picture.” Yes, the dogwood under the blue sky was a feeling worth keeping.