Nature’s Hidden Heroes
… Help Us to Blossom
Sometimes what seems incidental is quite magnificent! Try this to get you started:
Ground yourself by standing in a special place outdoors or near a window that captures it or focus on a photo of the natural world in some form. Take a few deep breaths and let go of any thoughts. Be present and relax. Expand your attention to what carries you upward and outward. Name it. See how it might play with you in the coming days and weeks.
If you’re stuck or needing inspiration, here is a perfect poem for you.
Wild Pansy
As a seed, I was shot out the back end of a blue jay
when, heedless, she flew over the meadow.
She had swallowed me in my homeland when she spied me
lying easy under the sun—briefly, I called her Mother
before I passed through her gullet like a ghost.
In a blink of God’s eye I was an orphan. I trembled
where I fell, alone in the dirt. That first night
was a long night, early May and chilly, and I remember
rain filled my furrow. I called out for mercy—
only a wolverine wandered by. I cursed my luck,
I cursed the happenstance of this world, I smelled
his hot stink, but he nosed me deep into the mud—
this was the gift of obscurity. I germinated, hidden
from the giants of earth, the jostling stalks,
the various, boisterous bloomers, and this was my salvation.
After seven days and nights I pushed through—
yes. Here I am, kissable: your tiny, purple profusion.
By Lisa Bellamy