Day 81

Many-limbed tree.

This tree has an interest in being in the Guiness Book of Records for the tree with the most branches.

This morning I read "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" by John Keats, from Endymion, and felt better.  My daily fix of poetry comes to me in an email entitled "The Writer's Almanac".  I think poetry is for me what reading the bible is for some people. 

I remember having a discussion with the boys in the car once last year, after they had told me about a kid who had been caught smoking weed in the boys' bathroom.  So I (in my normal fashion, which my family all tease me about) was getting all passionate about the fact that children and teenagers need to be taught how to live in the moment, how to delight in the mundane, how to read and write poetry, play music, make art.  And also how to relate to nature and animals, we have moved so far away from the earth.  I believe that if people feel a strong connection to the natural world they will not necessarily take drugs and do other senseless things.  Or at least be far less inclined.  So after listening to my fervent ramblings, the boys began teasing me, saying that when I was a teenager at school, I would probably whisper to my friends, "hey, do you want to meet behind the bicycle shed and do some..... you know, ...... some ..... poetry?  While sitting on the ............ ground.......... to connect with some ...............earth?"  My sons are very irreverent :-)

So here is my self-portrait for today, which was taken last year in May actually, taking delight in a breeze in the sunny meadow, enjoying the natural world!