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Today was a good day for
A Respite from the Cold
and food for the soul.
It’s been a cold week here in Minnesota with wind chills well below zero for much of the time. When it’s that cold I find it hard to motivate myself to go outside for a walk with my camera. Besides the bone-chilling cold, this is not the most photogenic season. In parks and on trails where I like to hike I see lots of bare trees, almost frozen lakes, and a thin coating of snow that doesn’t even cover up last summer’s grass.
So today I spent some time in the little greenhouse at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The Arboretum is one of my favorite places to hike when the temperatures are more moderate. But today I found the greenhouse just the medicine that I needed for my soul and spirit. My visit to the greenhouse was my own artist date (as suggested Julia Cameron in many of her books).
There were so many things in bloom in this hidden gem of a greenhouse, so much beauty, so much grace.
Along with the many blooming plants there were multitudes of other green plants to gaze at. I sat and simply soaked in all the beauty.
… all eternity is in the moment — Mary Oliver
Sitting quietly on a bench I felt as if I was turning towards delight simply being there. The green all around me felt like a benediction and a blessing. I try to always notice the wonder of being here in this body, at this time, in this particular place in the world. But when I take the time to spend time surrounded by plants I feel even more wonder, gratitude, and joy.
It is a strange and wonderful fact to be here, walking around in a body, to have a whole world within you and a world at your fingertips outside you. It is an immense privilege, and it is incredible that humans manage to forget the miracle of being here. Rilke said, ‘Being here is so much,’ and it is uncanny how social reality can deaden and numb us so that the mystical wonder of our lives goes totally unnoticed. We are here. We are wildly and dangerously free.
― John O’Donohue
When was the last time you took time to “do nothing” but soak in the beauty of the world and to feel gratitude for being able to walk around in a body?
Have a good weekend friends.
May you walk in beauty.
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