Sweet Ride

This morning Jon and I went out for a bike ride and yesterday we went for a walk at Carver Park Reserve. What a

Sweet Ride!

The scents of trees in bloom wafted through the air as we rode through our neighborhood this morning. Everywhere I looked I could see trees adorned with soft white blossoms and others sporting a bright pink floral jacket.

“We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it.”
― Mary Oliver

And the greens, oh my stars! There is no more electric color than spring green. On top of all that, lilacs are beginning to bloom, lawns are brilliant green everywhere I gaze. Everything looks new and fresh. It’s as if every spring the world around us gets a fresh new coat of paint. There are no tattered leaves or brown spots, no imperfections in sight.

One of the things I’ve noticed on my bike rides is that in some ways I am learning to ride again. It’s been many years since I rode. I am finding my rhythm with this new bike of mine. And though I could shift gears and keep peddling almost all of the time I relish coasting down hills and slopes. It makes me feel like a kid again, wild and free. And it gives me more time to look all around me and fill my soul with beauty.

Come with me into the woods where spring is
advancing, as it does, no matter what,
not being singular or particular, but one
of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.”
― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs

Sweet Walk

In the woods of Carver Park yesterday, the air felt infused with green with the new leaves all around and fresh green growing on the forest floor. At times I felt like I could feel the green things growing. I could sense the prana in the air—that urgent energy of new growth and awakening. It was wonderful.

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for–
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world

― Mary Oliver

It felt wonderful walking in the green-scented air (I can’t think of any other way to describe it). If you get a chance, go to the woods soon and take a walk. Look for wild woods where you can walk and feel as if you are all alone in the world. Soak in the scents, colors, and sounds. And soak in a little wildness while you’re there. We all need a little bit of wild in our lives.

“Some things are unchangeably wild, others are stolidly tame. The tiger is wild, and the coyote, and the owl. I am tame, you are tame. There are wild things that have been altered, but only into a semblance of tameness, it is no real change. But the dog lives in both worlds.”
― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs

May you walk in beauty.