Thursday Thought

This Morning

It's time. It's almost too late.

Did you see the magnolia light its pink fires?

You could be your own, unknown self.

No one is keeping it from you.

The magnolia lights its pink fires, 

daffodils shed paper sheaths.

No one is keeping you from it-

your church of window, pen, and morning.

Daffodils undress, shed papery sheaths-

gestures invisible to the eye.

In the church of window, pen, and morning,

what unfolds at frequencies we can't see.

Gestures invisible to the naked eye,

the garden opens, an untranslatable book

written at a frequency we can't see.

Not a psalm, exactly, but a segue.

The garden opens, an untranslatable book.

You can be your own, unknown self- 

not a psalm, but a segue.

It's time.

From Elizabeth Austen's collection Every Dress a Decision

This morning, I sit at my window (no pen in hand, but Chromebook instead) and the springtime calls to me. So does the warmth of my aqua fleece blanket with birds on it, a gift from my brother and sister-in-law (¨put a bird on it¨). No one but myself is keeping me from the outdoors. While I don't have a garden, my bicycle route to work is filled with daffodils and magnolias and other markers of spring. Will I heed the call? Become the self that I am outdoors? Or remain closed up an extra half hour for reading, writing, drinking tea? Only time will tell.