Thank you ! Lovely leaf images! At this time of year I often recall the expression ‘you cant see the wood for the trees’ and think ‘now I can’ - makes me smile every time ;) X
Thank you for your reflection. Trees are the most wise and patient teachers. This time of year their lesson so potent. Let it all go. Let it all fall away. If we just pay attention. The transition from autumn to winter is the end of one year and the beginning of the next. The darkness inviting me to feel into what is really important and what I should be nourishing before the light returns.
Such a precious time. The trees know. I enjoy Mary Oliver’s words so much. It’s easy to believe that she lived amongst the trees and heard their conversations.
Thank you for reading and for these reflections. I’ve been looking from the vantage point of autumn being the end of the year today, and it feels resonant. For me it’s a particularly significant time as I let go of- or perhaps transform- dreams I’ve been holding onto for several years but which may not be realised in the ways I had hoped.
I plan to write more on Mary Oliver in the future, as her poems are so present with me here in the woods.
I very much appreciate you taking the time to write back. I hope you find that nourishment that you seek in these darker nights
Thank you. Thank you. Every day is a great day to walk in the woods, but this early morning southwest of St Louis was another gift, with my dog, 60 degrees, breezy, sunny, the adjacent landowners’ home fires burning. This piece caps it off.
Dear Timothy. It is an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for reading, and for writing back. It brings me such delight to imagine a far away reader in a different climate Thank you for the glimpse into your world and your day. With warmest wishes, Sophie
I really enjoy how your text is filled with rhyming words. Really lovely reflection on Oliver’s own words. Personally I think the seasons work backwards to what we all think. I don’t believe the trees are young in Spring and old in Autumn I think in autumn they are actually behaving like children jumping on the bed and although they grow taller they do so by reversing themselves each year to the point of silliness. Each autumn they grow wiser by spending a season behaving like kids who throw off their clothes to dive into the ocean in Summer for a nice long dip - which naturally to them is Winter (in case that wasn’t obvious). 🙃
Dear Corraib. Thank you for noticing this! The rhythm and rhyme came naturally with the fall of the leaves and the feel of the season. It is therefore fitting that you mention playfulness, as this is certainly a quality evoked in me by the autumnal wood. I very much enjoy your way of thinking of trees, and the beauty of turning ideas on their head. Sometimes I look at trees, especially in the north east where so many have been coppiced, and see in their duel trunks a pair of legs sticking up in the air. Who’s to say the tree ‘top’ isn’t the part underground? We can never know which way around trees experience things!
Trees are such wise companions. And Oliver's tree poems are beautiful. It's Spring here in Cape Town, so our trees are bursting with green, but I prefer autumn.
Dear Carri. They are indeed. If I open a book of her poetry to any page, I always find something that alters my way of thinking or moves me. I heard her speaking on a radio programme once, and she described how she would leave pencils in trees around the wood so she could always find one if a poem came. I thought I might try this sometime!
How beautiful and strange it is to me that you are in spring time there. Endings and beginnings happening all at once. Thank you for writing back. Sophie
Thank you ! Lovely leaf images! At this time of year I often recall the expression ‘you cant see the wood for the trees’ and think ‘now I can’ - makes me smile every time ;) X
Dear Jane. Thank you for writing back. I love that idea - a time to gain clarity as well as to let go.
Warmest wishes,
Sophie
:) Ha ha! :) Fantastic - I will look out for upside down trees from now on.
Thank you for your reflection. Trees are the most wise and patient teachers. This time of year their lesson so potent. Let it all go. Let it all fall away. If we just pay attention. The transition from autumn to winter is the end of one year and the beginning of the next. The darkness inviting me to feel into what is really important and what I should be nourishing before the light returns.
Such a precious time. The trees know. I enjoy Mary Oliver’s words so much. It’s easy to believe that she lived amongst the trees and heard their conversations.
Thank you for your words 🙏🏼
Dear Emma,
Thank you for reading and for these reflections. I’ve been looking from the vantage point of autumn being the end of the year today, and it feels resonant. For me it’s a particularly significant time as I let go of- or perhaps transform- dreams I’ve been holding onto for several years but which may not be realised in the ways I had hoped.
I plan to write more on Mary Oliver in the future, as her poems are so present with me here in the woods.
I very much appreciate you taking the time to write back. I hope you find that nourishment that you seek in these darker nights
Warmest wishes,
Sophie
Thank you. Thank you. Every day is a great day to walk in the woods, but this early morning southwest of St Louis was another gift, with my dog, 60 degrees, breezy, sunny, the adjacent landowners’ home fires burning. This piece caps it off.
Dear Timothy. It is an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for reading, and for writing back. It brings me such delight to imagine a far away reader in a different climate Thank you for the glimpse into your world and your day. With warmest wishes, Sophie
I really enjoy how your text is filled with rhyming words. Really lovely reflection on Oliver’s own words. Personally I think the seasons work backwards to what we all think. I don’t believe the trees are young in Spring and old in Autumn I think in autumn they are actually behaving like children jumping on the bed and although they grow taller they do so by reversing themselves each year to the point of silliness. Each autumn they grow wiser by spending a season behaving like kids who throw off their clothes to dive into the ocean in Summer for a nice long dip - which naturally to them is Winter (in case that wasn’t obvious). 🙃
Dear Corraib. Thank you for noticing this! The rhythm and rhyme came naturally with the fall of the leaves and the feel of the season. It is therefore fitting that you mention playfulness, as this is certainly a quality evoked in me by the autumnal wood. I very much enjoy your way of thinking of trees, and the beauty of turning ideas on their head. Sometimes I look at trees, especially in the north east where so many have been coppiced, and see in their duel trunks a pair of legs sticking up in the air. Who’s to say the tree ‘top’ isn’t the part underground? We can never know which way around trees experience things!
Trees are such wise companions. And Oliver's tree poems are beautiful. It's Spring here in Cape Town, so our trees are bursting with green, but I prefer autumn.
Dear Carri. They are indeed. If I open a book of her poetry to any page, I always find something that alters my way of thinking or moves me. I heard her speaking on a radio programme once, and she described how she would leave pencils in trees around the wood so she could always find one if a poem came. I thought I might try this sometime!
How beautiful and strange it is to me that you are in spring time there. Endings and beginnings happening all at once. Thank you for writing back. Sophie