the act of opening out

the doing, the receiving


the cloud above awes me
and I want to send it a thank-you note. . .



I define myself so much in the doing--
what I touch with my fingers, my words,
my decisions, whether commission or omission,
the vision I have of what is
and how to support what it can release
to be even better,

I feel good about the bulbs I planted 6 weeks ago
that are now rooting themselves in the earth
to release themselves in the spring,

I love my students
and I love to help them release themselves as their best,

I love my family--
I seek to appreciate every moment
of the child becoming his and her self,
and I want to appreciate and understand the gift of themselves
every ancestor gave to their present, to the future, and to the past,

and still I am drawn
to just appreciate the beauty God releases,
seemingly gratuitously,
if we but stop and notice,
I seek to act
yet perhaps my most important action is
but to open myself to receive.

by Henry Walker
December 19, ‘08