#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

“. . . Who is this miracle speaking to me?
And who is this miracle listening?
What amazingness are we creating?
Out of gray matter a star spark of thought
leaps between synapses into the air,
and pours through gray matter, into my heart:
how can I not listen generously?”

~ Marilyn Nelson, excerpt from “Generous Listening”

Thunder, lightening, dogs riled in the dark of night. Then, the storm passes into safe and sunny morning, blue sky. The dogs feelings are renewed, the anxiety lifts, the world is whole and safe and there are wet leaves to smell and puddles in the dirt road to drink from. An ocean of swimming. First, passing the tree, I see an ear – an ear? Yes, like an ear. I stop and take a picture of the tree’s ear. Do trees listen? Enchanted ones, like this one, perhaps. What does a tree hear? What is a tree listening to, the rustles and shivers and creaks of each other? In the afternoon, the three of us go to Lucy Vincent Beach at high tide and there’s a steep wind and a red flag for swimming: Caution. It’s wild, the surf, engulfing the sand, and we must walk quite a way to find a dry spot to nestle and find contentment. I swam early on my walk in the still water of Vineyard Sound, and so I dip quickly in this Atlantic surf and retreat. The three of us sit and meditate together. In my meditation I picture my morning pictures, and I see my listening tree, and I realize one of the reasons I love leading writing workshops is how much I love to listen, when people share their writing, they are speaking so deeply. And this is why I chose to be a therapist too, and why I never tired of my long days of listening to clients. Because I am suited to listening. Less suited to talking. I am suited to reading and listening and writing and hearing what is at the heart of the story. I am a listening tree. I am listening tonight, through the open windows and the dark, to a fresh, warm wind blowing open all the silences, rustling the trees, chiming the wind chimes outside the door making music to lull us to sleep.