#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Early morning dock, Farm Pond
. . . You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves. . .
~ Excerpt from "Wild Geese,” Mary Oliver
The alarm rang for me at 5:30 a.m. I put on my bathing suit. Made coffee. Drove to my friend’s dock. It was pinkish in the sky, some pink clouds on the surface of the pond. I called down, down toward the dock from the lawn to see if my friend was there yet. No. Opened the door to her empty house, called to her. No dogs, no sound, no answer. I went down the stone steps through the humid air, in the damp spirit of the thick rhododendrons and laurel and fern and all the amazing plants alive on both sides of me. The dock was bare. No soul in the water. I called her on my phone, woke her up! I’m coming right down, she said. And, there she was, wrapped in her towel, bleary eyed from sleep, smiling. if she was swimming without a suit, so was I. We waded into the warm water. Over on the beach the wild geese sat still on the sand. None have been near her dock this summer, strangely––just mostly on the beach side. We headed to the pump house, treading water, talking, talking, having our goodbye swim. I told her how much her leadership matters. Her courage to follow her heart into the unknown, giving up a home she so deeply loves, an amazing, one-of-a-kind work of art. Letting it go. Overcoming the resistance, all the doubters. Why? Why would you give this up? Because her heart calls her to a new adventure. And she trusts the calling, is willing to walk bravely and assertively into the unknown. This is leadership. And, I one hundred percent trust what she’s doing. Growing these wings. Using her wings. We got to the pump house, turned back. Then, skimming the water, faster and faster, straight toward us, the flock of geese flew, lifting off just as they reached us into the sky. A fly over! We laughed and laughed and howled at the improvisational gorgeousness of this moment. And then, we were at the dock. And here it was. A happy chapter of being neighbors closed. I left her there on the dock to finish her closure. I headed, up the stone steps, into the mystery of this new chapter of our friendship.
. . . the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
~ Mary Oliver
My friend
Island, Farm Pond