It was my weekend for going
Into the Woods Again
Saturday we went to see the Guthrie Theater production of Into the Woods. What a great production it was! I’ve seen the musical before but it had been many years ago. Live theater, like live music, has a magic that lifts my heart and spirit. My daughters and granddaughter loved the musical as well.
The lyrics of the songs in the play and the play’s dialog are still reverberating through me. While the play is funny much of the time, tongue in cheek in others, and achingly sad in places as well, there is a line of wisdom laced through the play making fun of many human foibles and the illusion of “happily ever after.”
Must it all be either less or more,
Either plain or grand?
Is it always ‘or’?
Is it never ‘and’?
That’s what woods are for:
For those moments in the woods…
Oh, if life were made of moments,
Even now and then a bad one–!
But if life were only moments,
Then you’d never know you had one.…to get what you wish, only just for a moment–
These are dangerous woods!
Let the moment go…
Don’t forget it for a moment, though.
Just remembering you had an ‘and,’ when you’re back to ‘or,’
Makes the ‘or’ mean more than is did before.
Now I understand–
And it’s time to leave the woods.”
― Into the Woods
A Different Woods
With this morning’s cooler weather I headed to Big Willow Park in Minnetonka for a walk in the woods with my camera. I was so happy to be able to go into the woods again.
When we lived near this park I often walked in it several times a week. We moved away from that neighborhood almost 20 years ago. I like to go back to walk at Big Willow because of the many memories I have from walking there when our kids were still children.
The Scent of Green
As I headed down the path into the woods there was a fresh scent in the air. I asked myself, “What is this scent?” and decided it smelled like the color of green growing things.
I first began walking in this park in the early 1990’s. And I can see that it is changing ever so slowly from a large marshy area into something between marsh and meadow. The drought of the past couple of years may be hastening that natural process of filling in and creating land where once water stood.
Still, it is filled with beauty. I saw an egret standing in Minnehaha Creek which runs through the park. Though the creek flow is smaller and slower than usual I was relieved to see that there is still water flowing in the creek this summer.
Many springs the creek overflows the path in Big Willow so the small flow today was a big contrast to how it looked in early spring when I visited. I was able to walk a little over a mile today in the park, a huge improvement over several weeks ago. Yay! Ever so slowly the physical therapy I’m doing is making a positive difference.
I leave you today with an Emily Dickinson poem that spoke to me this week. I hope you enjoy it.
My first well Day — since many ill — I asked to go abroad, And take the Sunshine in my hands, And see the things in Pod — A 'blossom just when I went in To take my Chance with pain — Uncertain if myself, or He, Should prove the strongest One. The Summer deepened, while we strove — She put some flowers away — And Redder cheeked Ones — in their stead — A fond — illusive way — To cheat Herself, it seemed she tried — As if before a child To fade — Tomorrow — Rainbows held The Sepulchre, could hide. She dealt a fashion to the Nut — She tied the Hoods to Seeds — She dropped bright scraps of Tint, about — And left Brazilian Threads On every shoulder that she met — Then both her Hands of Haze Put up — to hide her parting Grace From our unfitted eyes. My loss, by sickness — Was it Loss? Or that Ethereal Gain One earns by measuring the Grave — Then — measuring the Sun — — Emily Dickinson
May you walk in beauty.
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