Pull Up a Rock and be in Wonder

Last year in my leadership program we learned to sit.*

We learned to sit in the woods--still as stone--and look and listen for 30 minutes at time. Once we made ourselves part of the trees, the leaves, and the rocks, we saw and heard wonders we'd only dreamed about--the wings of a insect zooming by our ears, the rustle of the leaves as the wind blows, sparrows playing the underbrush so close we could hear the morsels in their beaks snap as they ate them.

* Thank you to David and Anne, teachers of how to sit and be unseen.

I haven't practice sitting for quite a long time. Today I did.

This week, when you have a minute or ten to yourself, find a place that suits you: a park, a stand of woods, a trail, a lake, a canyon, a mountain. Pull up a rock or a tree and sit for 10 minutes or for 60. Be still. When you shift or move, move with the wind. Bring your vision from telescopic to panoramic.

Sit and be in wonder. What happens?

Unseen

Moon fades right, sun warms left,

Forrest ready front, Maple holds us all

A flick of a tail and red flashes by

Whoosh of a wing close behind

Ground rustling calls the squirrels from beyond sight

Rushing the proud oak

Running round and round and round then back down

All heard in the drum of running feet

Hawk screams somewhere east

Crows call north, fading south

Delicate taps shift west

Woodpecker needles the branches tree

Shift. Tap. Tap. Tap. Shift. Tap. Shift Tap. Tap.

Jay screams past in blue

Between the large trunked trees

Too big to hug, perfect for sitting

And becoming

Unseen