Rainy Winds-day

If we could, 
like the trees,
practice dying,
do it every year
just as something we do --
like going on vacation
or celebrating birthdays,
it would become 
as easy a part of us
as our hair or clothing.

Someone would show us how
to lie down and fade away
as if in deepest meditation,
and we would learn
about the fine dark emptiness,
both knowing it and not knowing it,
and coming back would be irrelevant.

Whatever it is the trees know
when they stand undone,
surprisingly intricate,
we need to know also
so we can allow
that last thing
to happen to us
as if it were only
any ordinary thing,

leaves and lives
falling away,
the spirit, complex,
waiting in the fine darkness
to learn which way
it will go.


Learning from Trees, by Grace Butcher


It was a good day for staying in bed and getting extra sleep. One short walk around the house looking for a photo was all I could muster. That and doing laundry. Stayed home, but at times it can be very hard to let go and clear my mind of work.