MINDFULNESS: "NEXT TIME" OR NOW

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness.  

If you are attentive, you will see it.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Learning to live more mindfully, by which I mean living in the moment and paying attention to whatever is present, has led many people to achieve greater peace and happiness in their lives.  This has been my experience as well.  When I clear my chatterbox mind of thoughts about the past or future, I inevitably find that there is vibrant, meaningful life in the mere act of being alive and being present with whatever is before me.  It is in the present moment, and only the present moment, that we hear distant birdsong, feel the wind on our faces, witness the magical unfolding of life in all of its glorious forms.

While I'm not inclined to spend a lot of time on regrets — that allows the past to steal the  present moment — I have often wondered if my earlier life would have been different if I had known then what I know now, particularly with respect to the value of living mindfully.  Of course, one can never know the answer to questions like this. Still, it's interesting to contemplate, as William Stafford does in this lovely poem.

                                                          Next Time
                                                    by William Stafford

                                       Next time what I'd do is look at
                                       the earth before saying anything.  I'd stop
                                       just before going into a house
                                       and be an emperor for a minute
                                       and listen better to the wind  
                                            or to the air being still.

                                       When anyone talked to me, whether
                                       blame or praise or just passing time,
                                       I'd watch the face, how the mouth
                                       has to work, and see any strain, any
                                       sign of what lifted the voice.

                                       And for all, I'd know more—the earth
                                       bracing itself and soaring, the air
                                       finding every leaf and feather over
                                       forest and water, and every person
                                       the body glowing inside the clothes
                                            like a light.

MORNING WALKS, TIMELESS WISDOM

Never say there is nothing beautiful 

in the world anymore.  There is always something

to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

Albert Schweitzer

I took another walk this morning through the 300-acre South Carolina Botanical Garden, which, to my good fortune, is located less than half an hour from my house. As I had done in recent days, I took my camera and was primarily focused on capturing images of some of the butterflies that are abundant in this area this during July and August.  As I finished taking photos of the butterflies and began returning to my car, I turned around and saw these wonderful green, oval leaves that were backlit by the sun.  It was a truly magical moment, one of those luminous moments in which time seems to be literally suspended.  After a few minutes of absorbing what I was seeing, I shot the header photo, which turned out to be my favorite image of the day. 

Here are some of the other images I've taken in recent days — mostly butterflies and moths, but also a few flowers along the way.  I've also added some insightful words from others who, like me, find nature to be a perennial source of beauty, contentment, and joy. 

I only ask to be free.

The butterflies are free.

Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole

what it concedes to the butterflies.

Charles Dickens

Bleak House

Happiness is like a butterfly:
the more you chase it, the more it will elude you,
but if you turn your attention to other things, 
it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.

Henry David Thoreau

It seems to me that the natural world
is the greatest source of excitement; 
the greatest source of visual beauty;
the greatest source of intellectual interest.
It is the greatest source
 of so much in life that makes life worth living.

David Attenborough

Deep in their roots, 
all flowers keep the light.

Theodore Roethke

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.

R.H. Heinlein

My soul can find no staircase to Heaven
unless it be through Earth's loveliness.

Michelangelo

I embrace emerging experience.

I participate in discovery.

I am a butterfly.

I am not a butterfly collector.

I want the experience of the butterfly.

William Stafford

The temple bell stops
but I still hear the sound
coming out of the flowers.

Basho

I dreamed I was a butterfly,
flitting around in the sky;
then I awoke.  
Now I wonder:
Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly,
or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?

Chuang Tzu

When you take a flower in your hand
and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.
I want to give that world to someone else.
Most people in the city rush around so,
they have no time to look at a flower.
I want them to see it whether they want to or not.

Georgia O'Keefe

If we surrendered
to earth's intelligence
we would rise up rooted, like trees.

Rilke

The earth laughs in flowers.

Emerson

It is written on the arched sky;
it looks out from every star.
It is the poetry of Nature;
it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.

John Ruskin

Nature is not a place to visit.
It is home.

Gary Snyder

I go to nature to be soothed,
and healed,
and to have my senses put in order.

John Burroughs

The butterfly counts not
months but moments,
and has time enough.

Rabindranath Tagore

Nature never deceives us;
it is we who deceive ourselves.

Jean-Jacque Rousseau

There is pleasure in the pathless woods, 
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes, 
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more.

Lord Byron

WILLIAM STAFFORD: "THE WAY IT IS"

In her introduction to The Way It Is: New & Selected Poems, a wonderful collection of the poems of William Stafford, poet Naomi Shihab Nye writes:  "In our time there has been no poet who revived hearts and spirits more convincingly that William Stafford.  There has been no one who gave more courage to a journey with words, and silence, and an awakening life."

Having just spent a couple of weeks of reading or re-reading Stafford's work each day, I find myself in complete agreement with Nye's praise.  Stafford's poetry brings both beauty and insight to the ordinary experiences that occur in daily life, and it always reminds us of something ineffably sublime that lies beyond the words of even a poet.

While I have many favorites, the Stafford poem that I keep returning to is the haunting but optimistic title poem, "The Way It Is."  Written just twenty-six days before Stafford died in 1993, it speaks — hopefully, I believe — of the need to remain grounded in something meaningful that will not betray us as we pass through our transitory lives, encountering loss, self-doubt, and suffering along the way.  Every sentence in this poem rings true to me.

                                                  The Way It Is

                                               by William Stafford

                           There's a thread you follow.  It goes among

                           things that change.  But it doesn't change.

                           People wonder about what you are pursuing.

                           You have to explain about the thread.

                           But it is hard for others to see.

                           While you hold it you can't get lost.

                           Tragedies happen; people get hurt

                           or die; and you suffer and get old.

                           Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.

                           You don't ever let go of the thread.