ordinary things

The ordinary things that sing and comfort
The birds and my sandals
My morning walk expands my morning
Carrying a book and stopping
and sit on benches along the way
to read and maybe write a note or two
my feet and pages get along
like kindlings to start a fire.

My voice bounces in greetings
when I meet other walkers
their dogs running towards me
I walk and read and say hello
what other wonders do a day offers
to lift the spirits?

note: photo of the palm tree in front of the door of our condo.

a tour

They all walk together in silence
Descending a long staircase
To visit a palace

 

walking

My friend and I

walked Oxford University campus

lots of bicycles.

 

Encounters

How many of 7,401,858,841 humans have you encountered?
Imagine a universe of possible connections.

When I arrive low tide has almost emptied the river
Revealing muddy banks and signs of old dredging.
A fisherman immersed in his cell phone laments
Absence of fish, a blue heron is tiptoeing beside him.

A cyclist-friend walks with his bike with me,
Says his father has been seeing butterflies
Fluttering on his bedroom wall in the morning
A slow narrative increasing in length.

I chat with a whistling man
Walking his corgi diminishes, he says,
His disillusionment in life. He starts
Remembering the different kinds of trees.

The hills are yellowing before me
Before the summer solstice.
Seedless watermelons selling for $4.99 each
Outside a grocery store next to a bank.

That night I hear
An angelic voice singing a lullaby
Which comforts me
To a deep sleep.

if you walk tomorrow, bring water in a bottle
and an extra step. The whole day may be hot.

Outdoors

It’s springtime. The time to go outdoors is now for your body, mind and soul.

commitment

9I walked to the river, sunny 67 degrees, 12,000 steps, today. The ducks were all lined up, a long line.

I have to do walk every day, a commitment I have to do, like writing or learning something.My health depends on it.

 

 

present moment

“…total absorption and complete absorption in the present moment is available to us all when we choose to let gratitude wash over us uninhibitedly.”
-M. J. Ryan, Attitudes of Gratitude

note: photos taken from the bank of Napa River where I passed by during my walk. It’s low tide.Today is cloudy and 65 degrees. My iPhone says I walked10,900 steps.

“If in doubt walk”

I woke up one morning
it’s first day of June
3 weeks in Istanbul
fortunes and defeats
arrival and departures of thought
“a miniature lifetime”
sometimes you find things
before you imagine
sometime you imagine
before you find things.

“I had seen a lot.”

notes: the quoted phrases are from A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

note: I want to congratulate Heather on the Fifth Anniversary of her Lost in Arles:

http://lostinarles.blogspot.com

To celebrate her fifth anniversary:

personal expressions

I rise early
believing morning will lift
veil of doubt left the night before.

Certain doors are for negotiations, others
open to a cathedral, I
follow a path to the river
along a street , a row of houses,
lawns, well kept, each
with personal signatures: a statue
of Buddha on a pedestal, a grotto
of Virgin Mary, surrounded
by flowers, a boy,looking
so real, playing with a dog,
a small garden of sand and stones,
each expression has its
own origin, own story, meaning.

Walking creates a clearing
“to engage inquiry with curiosity”
each step, a drop of wisdom,
leading to a place
not for a faint heart.

Will you come with me
visit the Tiger’s Nest
walking the path?

note: I just finished reading an exquisite book, The Hare With Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal.

look and you shall find

walking
the neighborhood
I’m six cents richer