Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me,
She took me back so tenderly
Arranging her skirts
Her pockets full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before
A stone on the riverbed,
Nothing between me and the white fire of the stars,
But my thoughts.
And they floated light as moths
Among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
Breathing around me.
The insects and the birds
Who do their work in darkness.
All night I rose and fell,
As if water, grappling with luminous doom.
By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times
Into something better.
We as a group of artist mothers from all over the world are making it our priority to turn off the tv/video games so that we can give our children the sacred experience to connect with the fast disappearing natural world. We will freelens our adventures into the wild and share them through this monthly project. The goal of this collaborative is to journey into something better.
“Snow Globe”
I only remember owning one snow globe when I was a child. It was beautiful, wonderful, magical. And it was breakable. I really did try to handle it with care. But it slipped right out of my little hands and shattered on the floor. When you must quickly and shamefully clean up a snow globe, it loses it’s enchantment. We don’t own any snow globes today. You have seen them before though. In fact, I have watched with my breath caught in my chest as you held them in your hands and shook them up creating a winter wonderland. While I notice a smile spreading across your lips with each shake, I know that your sense of wonderment will never be contained behind glass. Rather, you can touch the beauty, wonder, and magic. You can play with it all you want and never ever worry about breaking it.
Up next in our spectacular group of freelensers is Barb Toyama. Be sure to travel around the entire circle to see the worldwide magic this group creates.