Sandra Heska King

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Becoming Mindful in Place: Under the Maple Tree

June 15, 2015 By Sandra Heska King

MINDFUL - MAPLE4

 

I’m sunk into a red sports chair in the shade under the backyard maple. The site of the Great Lilac Massacre is behind me and in front is the home of the baby bluebird murders. In my mind, I still see the blood-splashed walls and little pecked heads.

The grandgirl no longer plays softball, but the pink ribbon outline of her pitcher’s practice target remains tied to the black chain link fence. (The ribbon used to be red.) A robin perches above it. White clouds shred themselves across the sky.

Dandelion leaves stud the leathery periwinkle carpet that trembles in the embrace of poison ivy. Why are green leaves falling? I hear an oriole’s trill but can’t locate it. The air smells like a blend of dog doo and peony. I should get a shovel, but for now I sit.

A white cabbage butterfly flits over the waves of tall field grass weighed down with seed.

The tree flounces its skirt in the breeze. My daughter’s swimsuit dangles from a white plastic hanger hooked in the eye of the clothesline. The wind picks up and wraps the skirt around the line. Now the suit stretches out horizontal, swimming in the wind, going nowhere.

The sun is moving, and I move my chair away from it, back into the shade.

I’m outside watching and dozing and watching for an hour before I notice the baby cones atop the thinning, knob-scarred pine. Or the propellers (helicopter seeds) bunched together like green tissue-paper flowers above my head. Light strobes through the leaves and reminds me of a disco ball.

Mary Oliver tried to count leaves.

I count the Y’s.

I count the whys.

I see a twigged Y at my feet.

Dead wood piled behind me.

Light-dappled, disco-ball grace in front.

 

MINDFUL - MAPLE2

MINDFUL - MAPLE

MINDFUL - MAPLE3

 

 

Madeleine L’Engle wrote, “When I am constantly running there is no time for being. When there is no time for being there is no time for listening. I will never understand the silent dying of the green pie-apple tree if I do not slow down and listen…”

For the next twelve weeks I’m going to intentionally practice slowing down, becoming mindful in place. I don’t have time for it in this season’s life chaos, which is exactly why I needed to enroll Tweetspeak Poetry’s online workshop of that name. I think they designed it with me in mind. This is a reflection from our first writing assignment, to simply sit and record what we see.

In the stillness,

Sandy

Will you take a few minutes today to be still? Tell me what you see.

With Laura

Laura Boggess

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Filed Under: Blog, stillness, stories and reflections, writing

Comments

  1. Lynn Mosher says

    June 15, 2015 at 10:50 am

    How lovely! Since I can’t afford the class, I look forward to what you write. May you be blessed in your place. <3

    • Sandra Heska King says

      June 16, 2015 at 10:34 am

      I really can’t afford it either, Lynn. And I don’t have the time. Which made me think I really NEEDED to take it. To get a little sanity back. Or find it. 🙂

      • Lynn Mosher says

        June 16, 2015 at 8:09 pm

        I’m sure you need it, sweetie. Too many whack-a-moles popping up! Praying for peace, comfort, and whatever else you need! ❤

  2. Jody Lee Collins says

    June 15, 2015 at 11:58 am

    Being mindful in place sounds just like LL’s ‘God in the Yard’ practice…SO good. I could see everything you described. May God pour out energy and grace in the slowing, my friend. I look forward to the next piece.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      June 16, 2015 at 10:40 am

      Exactly! God in the Yard. And in every place we slow down long enough to see Him. 🙂

  3. Martha Orlando says

    June 15, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    This sounds marvelous, Sandra. I actually do take time each day to simply be still and listen. I’ll be looking forward to your posts!
    Blessings!

    • Sandra Heska King says

      June 16, 2015 at 10:38 am

      Every day I’m more convinced that only in the stillness and quietness do we find strength.

  4. Michele Morin says

    June 16, 2015 at 7:58 am

    I try to practice a small version of what you have done in the morning when I write in my gratitude journal. I love the way you have juxtaposed the bitter and the sweet in your observations. We are always dealing with the why’s and the wise in our thinking and in our prayers. Your words do this so beautifully.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      June 16, 2015 at 10:44 am

      Always dealing with the why’s and the wise… God’s wisdom is beyond us, and only He can make sense of our why’s. But maybe we can get a hint, a peek behind the veil, when we are still and when we practice gratitude. Thanks for that reminder, Michele.

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