Sanctuary

This morning we started our day in a very safe place – the Peace Sanctuary along the Mystic River.

It’s a small but special nature preserve, and especially in the last few months it has seemed like a place of safety for us – an unspoiled oasis in the midst of the chaos of the covid-19 pandemic. This morning, as almost always, we were alone on the trail and had only the rustlings of leaves and a few stray raindrops as soft sounds to accompany us. I think we both felt sheltered as we walked – sheltered from the light rain under the wide-spreading trees, but also sheltered from the disorder of our furious human world. At home, we think of our silent meditation times as small ‘retreats’, and these walks in the Peace Sanctuary are like walking retreats as we pace along in the silence and solitude of peacefulness.

+ + + + +

 
MEDITATION AMONG THE HILLS OF SUSSEX
(with Delycia in the UK)
 
Some cars were moving softly past the hills,
and he was sitting on the grass outside,
with sunshine on his shirt 
and silence in his life -- the silence 
of contentment and simplicity. 
He luckily had someone by his side. 
Her hair was gray like hillside mist, 
and in her eyes was blueness 
like a valley lake. The cars passed by 
in peacefulness, and so did all his thoughts,
like clouds that drift along in satisfaction
in an undisturbed sky. He sat and watched
his thoughts, and watched her hair, 
as soft as clouds along the hills, 
and watched their lives that lingered 
and relaxed and let the universe spin on
the way it must.
 

+ + + + +

Below, a slideshow of some of this morning’s flowers in our own special sanctuary, Delycia’s garden: