Equinox and life cycles

Lines written in the days of growing darkness

Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends

into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out

to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married

to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do

if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?

--Mary Oliver.


We began the day with a service of meditation and gratitude for the life of Dharma Rain's Abbot Kyogen Carlson, a man of great heart and compassion whose death this past Thursday has left his wife and a great many others in shock, holding a deep sense of loss.

I had meant to join the People's Climate March in Portland, but I was worn out by the emotions of the morning and relied instead on other people's pictures and reports.

Later we marked the equinox, and in the evening I went alone to see the annual Swift Watch, a very sweet Portland event. Where else in the world will a thousand people gather to watch a lot of migrating Swifts enter a chimney for the night? I love this little city where I live. Much to my surprise, my granddaughter Bella exploded out of the crowd and came running to grab me around the knees. Her mother had organized a group of their friends to picnic together and watch the Swifts, and they kindly invited me to join them. A few pictures of that event are here.