Sinking into the Solitude



 You Reading This, 

Be Ready

Starting here, what do you want to remember? 

How sunlight creeps along the shining floor?

What scent of old wood hovers,

what softened sound from outside

fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world

than the breathing respect that you carry

wherever you go right now?

Are you waiting

for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around,

starting here,
lift this
new glimpse that you found;

carry into evening all that you want from this day.

This interval you spent reading

or hearing this,

keep it for life ~

What can anyone give you greater than now,

starting here,
right in this room,

when you turn around?

William Stafford

As the sun slips down into the horizon, I too seem to settle into the approaching darkness.  I have noticed the smallest of things today, and have overlooked that which looms before me.  

I have held dearly the clouds in the pristine sky, the fragrance of the wisteria, and the chirping of the birds building a nest in the tree in the moments of my day.  In learning to carry these glimpses into my evening I am quiet and still.  I fear by turning around I will find that I am not present at all as I am sinking into the solitude of my soul.