Glorious

The pond reflections yesterday morning were

Glorious!

So much gold and blue from tree and sky reflections. A lone male wood duck meandered through the reflections feeding on things he found in the pond. His solitary swim made me wonder…

Why is he alone? Where is his family? Is he the only one to survive? Or is he traveling ahead or behind the main group? How soon will he be flying south? And how far south will he fly? It is rare to see a lone wood duck in the pond. Usually they arrive in pairs, or a whole family cruises around the pond.

I stood looking out the window at him for the longest time, simply appreciating his solitary meanderings through magnificent tree and sky reflections on the pond. Did he know that he was swimming through a sea of gold? Is he sad to see the seasons turn? Or is he simply present in each moment, swimming and eating, doing the next right thing whatever that is?

I found a poem today that I thought was beautiful and true. Here it is:

Gloria Mundi

Come to my funeral dressed as you
would for an autumn walk in the woods.

Arrive on your schedule; I give you permission
to be late, even without good cause.

If my day arrives when you had other plans, please
proceed with them instead. Celebrate me

there—keep dancing. Tend your gardens. Live
well. Don’t stop. Think of me forever assigned

to a period, a place, a people. Remember me
in stories—not the first time we met, not the last,

a time in between. Our moment here is small.
I am too—a worldly thing among worldly things—

one part per seven billion. Make me smaller still.
Repurpose my body. Mix me with soil and seed,

compost for a sapling. Make my remains useful,
wondrous. Let me bloom and recede, grow

and decay, let me be lovely yet
temporal, like memories, like mahogany.

   — Michael Kleber-Diggs:

Temporal Life

I know my time in this life is fleeting. Whether I have more than a decade left or less than a year, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I cherish the moments that I have, that I notice the fleeting beauty of each season as it passes, that I love well and treat others with kindness, and that I choose joy each and every day.

Living well is like holding a paradox of the temporal and eternal at the same time. The moments fly by but when I am fully present and aware, each second can be an eternity of numinous beauty.

Have a glorious day!

May you walk in beauty.