Each night, the Moon kisses secretly, the Lover who counts the Stars.

~Rumi

can you feel happiness in the distance, in the night, and within the tough days?

inquiry for today~  how do you keep living your life? showing up? offering yourself?

That tall distance where

the clouds begin,

the forge that pounds out the lightning

and the black porch where the stars

are dressed in light

and arrangement is made for the moon’s path-

it’s these I think of now, after

a lifetime of goldfinches,

meandering streams,

lambs playing,

the passionate hands of the sun,

the coolness under the trees

talking leaf to leaf,

the foxes and the otters sliding on the snow,

the dolphins for whom no doubt

the seas were created,

the spray of swallows gathering in autumn-

after all of that

the tall distance is what I think of now.

~Mary Oliver