the most beautiful form of courage
the most beautiful form of courage
A few days after the autumnal equinox. Settling in with work now that summer is really over. And, yes, research indicates, this is our most productive time of year. In our yard, high up in a mango tree, two baby owls screech with small and lovely voices invariably at dusk and dawn. And each time, I fall in love. This beauty. This happiness, a choice.
And so, this week, just an autumnal poem to share. See if it resonates. Let me know what delights, or not. What puzzles you? I will absolutely respond. A next blog post, more about this choice of happiness.
Because you are enough have always been enough, spilling over, and you really do want to give and live so much. Choosing happiness is freeing space to make things better. This truth. This falling in love. This courage.
“What the Day Gives," by Jeanne Lohmann.
Suddenly, sun.
Over my shoulder
in the middle of gray November
what I hoped to do comes back, asking.
Across the street
the fiery trees hold onto their leaves,
red and gold in the final months of this unfinished year,
they offer blazing riddles.
In the frozen fields of my life
there are no shortcuts to spring,
but stories of great birds in migration
carrying small ones on their backs,
predators flying next to warblers they would,
in a different season, eat.
Stunned by the astonishing mix in this uneasy world
that plunges in a single day from despair to hope and back again,
I commend my life to Ruskin’s difficult duty of delight,
and to that most beautiful form of courage, to be happy.
From The Light of Invisible Bodies: Poems. © Daniel and Daniel Publishing, 2003.
Thanks as always for reading. I really mean this. We all have to be so careful in choosing where we spend our energy and time. Yet, together we grow our impact for good 10x. With gratitude, sophia
