The Birth of My Blog in a Snowy Forest on this New Year 2010

This is an example of "kairos" on the New year of 2010. I was driving on a snowy day past a forest preserve that I often pass on the long trip I have to work. Usually at dusk in spring and summer a herd of deer meander though these urban surrounded woodlands. I was musing, remembering an early warm autumnal twilight as I gazed upon these lovely creatures. I was wistfully longing to see their grace, their gentle beauty.It was quiet on the roads of this frosty January morning, the morning after a rare" blue-moon" the night before.And here, standing in the clearing, my simple lovely wish was granted, seemlessly, with ease, as perfect as can be,justso...

The Place I Want To Get Back To

by Mary Oliver

is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness

and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me

they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let's see who she is
and why she is sitting

on the ground like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;

and so they came
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way

I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward

and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring to me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years

I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can't be repeated.

If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.

"The Place I Want To Get Back To" by Mary Oliver, from Thirst. © Beacon Press, 2006. Reprinted with permissio