PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

I wish more people were blessed to experience 

nature’s gentle side…

the peace and the tranquility 

her mountains, trees…her lakes and oceans provide.

Having spent a lot of time in nature

It is my unmitigated belief…

that nature with her quiet beauty

will always help with stress relief.

May we all be blessed to watch and listen to the birds…

singing from their branches as the day’s about to start…

because I guarantee watching and listening to the birds in the morning

will help to soften any heart.

We love to listen to the music of the mountains from our cabin…

The wind whistling through the trees…

The buzzing of the hummingbird wings…the birds’ songs floating on the breeze.

So when we took a picnic to our favorite spot on the Parkway 

(where we’ve been picnicking for 37 years)

We were excited as we anticipated in this part of the forest 

the different kinds of music we might hear. 

But when we reached our favorite spot…there was no music… not a sound…

what immediately caught our attention was the silence all around.

Everything was still and quiet…every animal, every mountain…every tree.

There was something captivating…about this silent symphony.

I smiled quietly at Deborah who smiled quietly back at me…

It was as if, for a moment, we were experiencing the world 

the way the creators meant for it to be.

For a moment those creators turned the sound off to help us understand…

how much there is to enjoy in the silent beauty of the land.

From the clouds to the sun to the grass to the rocks to the mountains to the trees

we experienced a world of peace…with everything living together…in quiet harmony.

It’s a peacefulness we felt blessed at that moment to have innocently stumbled upon…

and one that stayed within our hearts even when they turned the sound back on.

While we quietly ate our tuna subs…In the cool, silent mountain air…

We reminisced how from the time our children were children 

we have been picnicking there.

Which only makes us more determined…to speak up for love and equality

to do are part to help the world live in peace and harmony.

Because every child deserves the chance 

to experience the world the way the creators meant for it to be…

every child deserves a chance to have picnics with their family.

A joyful world where we all live in peace and harmony!

It’s an idea that makes many people scoff…

but it was strengthened in us on a picnic just the other day

when the creators turned the music off…

I wonder when Mother Nature was creating our world…from the mountains to the sea

If, in the beginning, she started out with one flower, one bird, one butterfly and one tree.

When she brought each one to life…when she set their spirits free

did she smile then whisper to herself how wonderfully unique and beautiful

is that one flower, one bird, one butterfly…one tree.

I wonder when she saw each one’s singular beauty…a beauty she’d never experienced before 

If her heart began to beat a little faster and her mind began to soar.

Did she wonder to herself…how beautiful the world would be 

If there were more than just one flower, one bird, one butterfly…one tree.

I wonder did she think after giving each a name…

what if I made each new one a little different…what if no two were the same.

As she created each new tree with it’s own unique beauty…no matter how tall or short or wide

did she imagine how beautiful would be the forest where all trees stood side-by-side?

As she gave each new bird a different voice to be carried on the breeze…

did she imagine the beauty when those voices harmonized from inside the shelter of her trees. 

As she created each new flower to be a little different…

each one it’s own beautiful surprise

did she imagine the beauty a field of flowers would possess…

with each one a different color, shape and size.

As she created each butterfly to have their own beauty, wonderment and power… 

did she imagine what a beautiful sight it would be…when butterfly meets flower.

Doesn’t it stand to reason…if with the flowers, birds, butterflies and trees

Mother Nature went to all that fuss…

that she’d go to just as much trouble…when she created us?

That she would give all humans similar features…unique in our own way

creating us all the same…but different…with our uniqueness on display.

Perhaps she meant for us to come together…and when we come together to see

that same beauty she created in the flowers, the birds…the butterflies and the trees. 

But in all our years upon this Earth…despite Mother Nature’s best efforts…

seeing our combined beauty is one of her wishes we have yet to fulfill…

which makes me wonder…if Mother Nature wonders…

that perhaps…we never will.  

Today I’m grateful for to be so close to nature…

Because when I need to lift my spirits…I do not have to travel very far

I take a walk in the shadow of the moon…or I gaze up at the stars.

I walk beside the ocean tides…I breathe the cool crips mountain air…

I take a walk in nature…and find my comfort there.

I grew up in the Catholic faith…

We were taught for piety, kindness, compassion and love to search

but for reasons that remain my own..I lost my faith in the Catholic Church.

I still pray to a God however…

usually when I walk in nature…among the animals and the trees.

When I take in the aroma of a field of flowers..or feel the salty ocean breeze.

When I walk on a mountain high….or through a valley low. 

When I sit beside a river and watch her waters flow.

On a walk in nature is where I can feel…where I can see

the world that God created…the world she intended it to be.

I say she but that’s only to attach a label to a celestial entity

for the God I pray to is every gender and every color in the world…

a point not lost on me.

Many is the day…as I watch people treating one another so horribly

that I will walk in nature…and stop…to ask this entity…

Why would you…the God who created all the beauty that I see…

who created all this variety of life…this wonderful diversity

want to exclude anyone who looks or acts a little differently than me?

These all encompassing Gods (again for lack of a better name)

whenever I ask this question… their answer is the same.

“Excluding anyone whose different,” they say…”is something we’d never do!

No God, no entity worth their weight, would ever do that…

and neither should any of you.

Which always brings me to the same conclusion

which makes every God I pray to nod…

some people are looking to the wrong entity for guidance…

and worshiping the wrong God.

Near the end of our walk the other day we were blessed to see

hundreds of robins enjoying breakfast in a cherry laurel tree.

In Florida this time of year the fruit of the Carolina Cherry Laurel 

turns black and shiny and sweet….

sending a message to all the robins that…it is time to eat.

It’s no coincidence…or so from the cherry laurel we’ve been told…

that their fruit ripens at the same time the robins are in Florida

escaping the winter cold.

I imagine robins getting together before the winter snows they flee..

telling each other to have a safe trip…

and we’ll meet up down in Florida…at the cherry laurel tree.

And that is were we saw them yesterday…

jumping from branch to branch…chirping…as happy as can be…

sharing stories of their adventures while feasting on the fruit

of the cherry laurel tree.

As more robins flew into her branches…then more and more and more

the Carolina Cherry Laurel smiled at us saying,

“This is what I was created for.”

“For this is the way of nature.” She told us.

“We work together…all these robins and me…

They eat my fruit then fly off and spread my seeds

creating more cherry laurel trees.”

“And with more cherry laurel trees, “ she continued…”The circle is complete…

because then there are more cherries for more robins to come and eat.”

We stood there mesmerized…watching for a while…unable to say a word….

observing the symbiosis of nature at work…between fruit and tree and bird.

And, again, we thought how nature is trying to teach us…

the way our world is meant to be…

and we walked away hoping we could all be a little more…

like the robins and the cherry laurel tree.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert grow up listening to the stars…

and feeling the joy their music brings….

but for most of us the stars are silent…we have never heard them sing.

Nor can we talk to the flowers, the forest…the oceans

and all the animals who within them dwell…

We’ll never know the adventures they’ve had…

never hear the stories they can to tell.

The Bushmen have an explanation for this…a simple reason why:

So many of us have lost our connection to the the land…the seas…the sky.

So I’ve been doing a little experiment with the rabbits I see on my walk…

when I see them I stop…close my eyes…and in my head we have a little talk.

I say, Good Morning Rabbits…do not be afraid…do not be alarmed….

I just want to say hello…I won’t cause you any harm.

I tell them not to worry…that I will soon be on my way…

I hope that they are happy and to have a wonderful day.

Of course at first they ran away…back into the bushes, the grasses…the woods.

I wasn’t sure if they heard me…or if the did…they understood.

But lately they’ve stopped running…they don’t find me so offending…

I think, perhaps, my words and thoughts they might be comprehending…

Or perhaps it’s nothing more than simply rabbit curiosity 

I can’t be sure because, no matter how much I talk to them…

they have yet to talk to me.

But now that I have their attention… 

I let them know they are welcome to talk to me too…

that they can take their time…that I’ll be listening when they do.

These rabbits are the first connection I’m trying to make…

on them many of my hopes and dreams are clinging….

because if this experiment works…who knows…

perhaps…

one day…

I’ll hear the songs the stars are singing.

We took a guided hike through a park last night…a beautiful natural preserve.

and in the dark it is amazing…all the things we could observe.

As the crickets serenaded us…at an alligator on the bank we got to peek

while we heard mudpuppies just under the surface…dancing in the creek.

Through narrow sand-covered pathways in the quiet we did tromp

under tall  oak covered canopies…then on to wooden boardwalks over swamps.

We saw a phosphorescent scorpion…listened for owls…hoping to see one soar…

and learned how gopher tortoises lay their eggs

in a hole just outside their front door.

Oaks, slash and long-leaf pine trees…we greeted them as we passed

and learned of their unique relationships with each other…the water…and the grass. 

On a clear night when we looked up through the treetops

we could see the twinkling of the stars….

and in a line waving down at us

were Venus, Saturn, Jupiter…and Mars.

On the final part of the hike…they let us walk alone in silence….

accompanied only by an evening breeze

and as the crickets continued to serenade us

they were joined by the whistling of the trees.

On this beautiful night hike we were reminded

how each part of nature is important for all of nature to survive….

and where we saw from the shadows how all of nature cooperates

to keep itself alive.

It was a magical night where we got to experience the balance of nature

in a beautifully preserved park….

spreading out before us in all its splendor…

once our eyes became accustomed to the dark.