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”.
Next up in the blog circle is the amazing Heather Robinson - my favourite freelensing mama, bar none. Click here to check out where she explored this month.
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This is one of our favourite summer activities (and I may feature this spot again this summer). Sometimes we swim, sometimes we hunt for fossils, sometimes we fish, sometimes we just go because we feel the pull of the river. We drop everything, wear what we've got on, go in cloud or sun, warm or cold, and go. This place satisfies our wandering feet and calms our stress. It's one of those few places that feel like home-outside-of-home.
On this night the fog was rolling in off the coast and I remember standing there with my camera, willing the sun to come out so I could capture some amazing flare. And then I remembered the whole point of this project - not to make amazing photos, but to leave our everyday lives behind for a bit. So I ignored the imperfect conditions and we picked up bug skeletons and sticks and waded into the cool water and sat and listened to the sounds. Turns out, the picture was perfect anyway.
