art is contemplation

art is contemplation.  it is the pleasure of the mind

which searches into nature and which there

divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated.

-auguste rodin (1840-1917)

awaiting the birth-hour

everything is gestation and then bringing forth.  to let each impression and each germ of a feeling come to completion quite in itself, in the dark, in the inexpressible, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one's own understanding, and await with deep humility and patience the birth-hour of a new clarity:  that alone is living the artist's life - in understanding as in work.

-rainer maria rilke (1875-1926)

stretched

a mind that is stretched by a new experience

 can never go back to its old dimensions.

-oliver wendell holmes (1841-1935)

granny's garden revisited

gentle lady, mother of nine,

widowed too young -

no time to grieve;

times were hard,

life had to go on.

in your golden years,

when you could take some ease,

you planted the whole front yard

of the house on clemson street

with flowers -

an outpost of eden.

you were already white-haired

and worn

when i came along.

i loved the way you poured your coffee

into the saucer for me -

laced with sugar and lots of cream.

you would pat my hand,

and say:  come sit near granny

and i would snuggle up beside you,

my head, resting on your  bosom.

i did not know then

what i know now -

how age and the cares of this world

catch up with us in the end.

how i wish i could roll back time

and join you in your garden

once again....

-stacy wills (4/21/9012)

an instrument of grace

everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. gardening is an instrument of grace.

help us to be ever faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light nothing flowers.

-may sarton (1912-1995)

source image: female rhino beetle

gratitude unlocks...

gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. it turns what we have into enough, and more. it turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. it can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. gratitude makes sense of your past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

-melody beattie (author, b. 1948)

chrysalis

she enters as one

weary of the struggle

the slow crawl

of a soul in agony

to know the purpose

of her existence

surrendering to all

she cannot change

to all she cannot fathom

a fine button of silk

is all that holds her now

to this world

as the final ecdysis* reveals

a harder skin

a tough exterior

belies her vulnerability

inside the chrysalis

a metamorphosis

is taking place

it is the movement

toward imago

the movement

toward realization

the movement

toward emerging

in triumph she sits

atop an empty shell

she leaves as one reborn

-stacy wills (3/30/2012)

(*ecdysis: from the greek, ekduo - to take off, strip off)