The Pinewoods
Just before dawn
three deer came walking
down the hill
as if the moment were nothing different
from eternity-
as lightly as that, they nibbled
the leaves,
they drank from the pond,
their pretty mouths
sucking the loose silver,
their heavy eyes
shining, Listen.
I did not really see them. I came later
and saw their tracks on the empty sand.
But I don’t believe
only to the edge
of what my eyes actually see
in the kindness of morning, do you?
And my life,
which is my body surely, is also
something more-isn’t yours?
I suppose the deer waited
to see the sun lift itself up,
filling the hills with light and shadows-
then they went leaping
back into the rough, uncharted pinewoods
where I have lived so much of my life,
where everything is so quick and uncertain,
so glancing, so improbable, so real.
Mary Oliver from Why I Wake Early
My son is building a house in the pinewoods, on the ocean. Yesterday when I visited the property, which is deep into the most amazing woods and granite forest, I was gifted the company of the deer in the first photo. He/she was so close to me that I needed nothing more than my 18-135 lens. It was just him/her and me. We connected eye to eye, and then she ran away. It was a beautiful encounter, as I feel every connection with nature is. It’s where I find my joy and my work. It’s where I find peace. Nothing is more precious than to slow down and quietly sit or slowly drive and feel the world of nature surround you. At the end of this visit to the pinewood forest, that is what I will call those woods; after reading this poem, I was reminded again that there is something beyond myself in charge of my universe. I was fortunate to find that deer yesterday and the other deer on an earlier visit here, but I would have been feeling just as grateful to see how beautiful all the wildflowers that were also growing in this area were. No one tending them, no one but mother nature watering them, the sun warms them up, and they grow, creating a colorful palette in the woods. Perhaps I will share those flowers with you on your next visit here to the blog. It really doesn’t matter what I find on any given day. I know the answer to finding this beauty and partnership with nature…you have to get out there. So grab your gear and go. No gear, go anyways. You will always come home with more than what you left with—happy Spring from the pinewood forest.
