It might seem silly but often I forget to breathe. Rather than exhaling, I hold my breath, running around all day, attempting to divert impending disasters and cleaning up the messes of the ones I was not able to thwart. By the time I am ready to lay my tired body down for a night of sleep, I realize that the pain weighing heavy on my heart is all that stale air pent up inside tangling itself in my guts in an effort to smother my joy. Just breathe. Deeply in and out. But on this day, this beautiful Friday, surrounded by open space, friendly faces, and the purity of unfettered life blossoming all around me, the air flowed easily from my lungs and I felt so grateful, so free, so drunk on life. I could have stayed all day. Thank you
Gene and Beri for sharing your home with us.
The Land of Nod
Robert Louis Stevenson
From breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay,
But every night I go abroad
Afar into the land of Nod.
All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do --
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.
The strangest things are there for me,
Both things to eat and things to see,
And many frightening sights abroad
Till morning in the land of Nod.
Try as I like to find the way,
I never can get back by day,
Nor can remember plain and clear
6 comments:
Sounds absolutely perfect. Glad you had a day where you could just breathe...thinking of you!
Beth -
This morning, I realized I had forgotten to breathe in the middle of a tense moment. It was funny that I was very conscious of the fact -- and a deep breath released that tension, allowing to speak calmly at that moment.
I so enjoy Robert Lewis Stevenson - his poetry book for children is the first poetry book I ever read in its entirety, being assigned for school in our curriculum.
Thanks for sharing. :)
Hugs,
Michelle
I love the poem, love the songs, love the photos (I think my favorite is the one of Thomas holding Lucia)! Yes, sieze those moments, dear friend, which enable you to take a big, bold breath! And keep sharing your outings with me here! Your reflections on them make me feel peaceful.
Every time you post pictures of this farm I want to go! It seems like a perfect place to breathe. We have found the local watershed to be a perfect place for long and short breaths. Keep going, you are doing a wonderful job.
I hear you on this... thanks for this post... love to you... really love your blog :)
The reminder to breathe is well taken. I can can tell when I am forgetting, because I will start yawning, which I think is so funny, because it typically conveys boredom. Maybe it's a signal to me that my nervous breath-holding keeps me from being fully present in the moment.
"The Land of Nod" has been one of my favorites since I was a young child and read it to myself out of an anthology of children's literature.
Post a Comment