A flower garden in Minneapolis
What a string of glorious days! The weather is crisply cool at night and the sun shines brightly most days. Brilliant fall colors are popping out here and there throughout the Twin Cities, but greens can still be seen everywhere too.
Last week my brother mentioned that the lawns looked spring green in Iowa where he lives. They have been looking spring green here too. It has been an unusual weather year and all our rain has made for these incredible greens, even now as fall strides in.
Wild Turkeys in the neighborhood
From joy to joy to joy
The hummingbirds who were gracing our lives for much of the summer have left on their fall migration south (but the turkeys are out in full force). I miss the cheerful presence of the hummingbirds feeding and performing aerial acrobatics outside my kitchen window. And I send blessings for their journey south. May they return next year to share more joy with us.
It’s the experiences and beauties of weeks like this that I want to soak into every cell of my being, so that I can call upon the memories when the day length shortens, temperatures drop, snow blankets the ground, and winter seems like it will never end.
Sumacs on a slope in French Regional Park
I savor not only the sights and astonishing beauty all around, but the feeling of the cool breeze on my skin, the warmth of the sun shining on me, the scents of fall arriving, and the sounds of tree leaves rustling in the breeze.
O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it…There are days we live…
from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
~ Li-Young Lee, from “From Blossoms”
When I focus on seeing, feeling, smelling, and hearing beauty all at once, I enter a kind of wordless state of oneness with all that is. The “is-ness” of it all makes me feel as if I am living “from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom.”
What sights, feelings, sounds and smells do you notice on your walks in nature this week?
May you walk in beauty.
Dahlia
Colorful slope in French Regional Park
Wild asters blooming
Hanging plant in Minneapolis graden
Colorful sumac leaves on the ground
Maple leaves from tree in the park next to our house
Zinnias and bee brighten my day
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