Staying

I would like to learn to ‘stay’ more often – remain right where I am without wandering off to some other place or task. There’s something special, I think, about ‘staying put’. Stones do it constantly, and easily, just sticking to where they are for months and maybe years and centuries. The stones in our stone fence have stayed there for years, precisely where they were placed, and stones in fields have been sitting in the same places in, I might say, a pleasant peacefulness.

And these stately, distinguished trees I passed on a walk in Elm Grove Cemetery this morning – how patient they seem, how single-minded, just staying right where they are day after day, year after year!

Perhaps I’ll try a little ‘staying’ each day – just letting myself be left somewhere to sit silently, to persist in simply being where I am, to suspend all stirring and rushing, and just stay, a senior-citizen stone or tree, sitting in peace. 

IN STAYING
 
In Staying, Kansas, 
staying is a popular pastime. 
Trees usually stay standing 
precisely where they are,
almost as if they think
they are lucky to be there, 
and laughter lingers longer here 
than in other towns.
Pillows wait patiently
for people’s heads to finally find them, 
 and happiness,
in Staying,  
insists on hanging around, 
hoping someone will notice. 
Towels in bathrooms stay put, 
well prepared for people’s hands, 
and the sky continues, 
day after day, 
to be the sky.
Best of all, in Staying, 
peace persists, hangs on,
continues, and carries on.  
 
 

Hamilton and Delycia, staying put …