Sunny and 80 Degrees Within

“Zen pretty much comes down to three things — everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.”― Jane Hirshfield

“When life throws you a rainy day, play in the puddles.” – Winnie the Pooh

We are getting our winter in summer.
Our snow is coming in the form of long stretches of rain.
Greenest, most colorful season in many years.
Muddy too.
Unexpected twists and turns.
Plans not working out as planned.
Circumstances, the weather, others, not in my control.
Attitude and perspective, mine to own.
Tigger or Eeyore?
To not turn what’s outside inside.
To remain, and not complain.
Sunny and 80 degrees within, please.
And a good pair of boots, to go play in the puddles.
Guard your joy.
Stand watch over your peace.
Go out into the world, find the good and cast light.

“Optimism

More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs — all this resinous, unretractable earth.”
― Jane Hirshfield, Each Happiness Ringed by Lions : Selected Poems