Dear Blossom
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
I’ve got W H Davies poem, Leisure, on my mind this weekend, the first in the last 4 weeks where I’ve been fully home. And mostly chilled. I say ‘mostly’ because my mind still wanders to the ‘to do’ list which my body is too tired to begin to attempt and which my heart knows that can be tackled more efficiently once we’ve all had some good quality rest. So it’s been a relaxing and restful fest – catching up on recorded TV programmes, sleeping, eating and more sleeping, browsing social media and more sleeping and spending time with a couple of friends that visited yesterday. . .
But for walking Michael, I wouldn’t have seen the outside world in these past two days…I didn’t really want to… I’m glad I’ve got him here to inspire me to ‘get out of my head’ and experience the elements at times like this. I did enjoy the cool breeze brushing against my cheeks, the light drizzle yesterday, the sweet sunshine that smiled on me today and the rusty colours of autumn that litter our local park.
And because I had no schedule, I saw I was much more relaxed with him as he stopped by every tree to nose around. Usually I’d call him to come along if he was taking too long. Today, at some point, I simple sat down on one of the benches. I said to him in my mind, ‘spend all the time you need investigating that tree. I have all the time in the world to just stare at you and your antics’. How relaxing was that!?
So, what do you do to unwind, chill and recharge? Do share!
For now, I’ll leave you with the whole poem, and I hope you do make out some time to simply stand and stare…
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
– W H Davies
