{"id":6917,"date":"2013-09-17T18:03:30","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T22:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=6917"},"modified":"2013-09-17T18:03:30","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T22:03:30","slug":"what-helps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/09\/what-helps.html","title":{"rendered":"what helps…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2012-05-28<\/a>Remember the old Beatles song? The one that begins When I find myself in times of trouble…<\/em>? It’s Let It Be<\/em>, from the white album. And while Mother Mary isn’t my default for times of sorrow and trouble, poetry is. As is getting outside.<\/p>\n

Something there is about sitting in the green light of summer, the yellow light of fall, that heals me. I can watch birds at the feeders on the deck for hours, happy to compare the flight of tiny hummers to large pigeons. Soothed by the whirrrring of wings and the calling songs.<\/p>\n

Here’s a poem that reminds me there will always be ‘outside,’ replete with the things that repair hearts. Like frogs, this one sitting happily on my flowerpot outside, 10 feet up from the ground… Life is magic, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

From a Country Overlooked<\/p>\n

by Tom Hennen<\/em><\/p>\n

There are no creatures you cannot love.
\nA frog calling at God
\nFrom the moon-filled ditch
\nAs you stand on the country road in the June night.
\nThe sound is enough to make the stars weep
\nWith happiness.
\nIn the morning the landscape green
\nIs lifted off the ground by the scent of grass.
\nThe day is carried across its hours
\nWithout any effort by the shining insects
\nThat are living their secret lives.
\nThe space between the prairie horizons
\nMakes us ache with its beauty.
\nCottonwood leaves click in an ancient tongue
\nTo the farthest cold dark in the universe.
\nThe cottonwood also talks to you
\nOf breeze and speckled sunlight.
\nYou are at home in these
\ngreat empty places
\nalong with red-wing blackbirds and sloughs.
\nYou are comfortable in this spot
\nso full of grace and being
\nthat it sparkles like jewels
\nspilled on water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember the old Beatles song? The one that begins When I find myself in times of trouble…? It’s Let It Be, from the white album. And while Mother Mary isn’t my default for times of sorrow and trouble, poetry is. As is getting outside. Something there is about sitting in the green light of summer,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,392],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,1193,405,1248,1279],"class_list":["post-6917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grieving","category-nature","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-grieving","tag-healing-of-nature","tag-living-in-the-moment","tag-nature"],"yoast_head":"\nwhat helps... - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Remember the old Beatles song? 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Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. 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