I am not running anywhere…

“ I am running into a new year” (prompt)

 I belong to an interesting writer’s group. Our moderator asks that we write from a sentence of a poem… I always write spontaneously usually as soon as the prompt arrives and I am always interested in the results. For that reason I am going to start recording these responses on my blog to keep track of them. 

 Gift from the Sea

I am not running

 anywhere!

I am enshrouded

in winter stillness –

Silence –

participating in

the Great Rounding

of the seasons,

 acceptance

in my mind,

   in my heart.

 I walk a

knife edge 

of inner knowing

blurring boundaries,

perceiving as

 the naturalist* does

each serpentine curve

of my beloved river,

avoiding stones

that would block entry

to the sea.

 I am the river too.

Listening.

I write the

next chapter

of our story.

We are both endangered.

But Natural Grace

offers some protection

to those who see.

Postscript on being a naturalist:

 A naturalist is a learner, someone who is of little consequence to others, especially if that person writes from personal experience. Many naturalists like me do not separate science from religion or ourselves from the rest of nature; we know that we are participating in a Great Mystery, and do not subscribe to the myth of objectivity. Our keen observations and pattern recognitions are dismissed as irrelevant by those who think they know.