We Become One Another

Last weekend my family and I stayed at a house on Paugus Bay just off of Lake Winnipesaukee. On our first morning there, I stepped out onto the balcony and was astonished by the sunrise.

On our last morning my youngest son and I woke early to watch the sunrise as flocks of Canada geese glided quietly by.

Kayaking together afterward with not another human in sight, we had several periods of peaceful silence as we stopped paddling and just listened and watched...and glided. Only by contemplating one another deeply can we truly understand...and become one another.

Radiance Rises to the Top

My walk at the Garden in the Woods in Framingham began with my not knowing where to look first, with so much to see. So it was fitting that this sculpture, called "Wired" by Michael Alfano, would be the first to hold my eye...

...followed soon thereafter by this "serpentine" sculpture ("Hidden Valley" by W. Gary Smith), which was created by falling trees.

Clear paths like this one...

...led to comforting paths like this one...

...taking me up stone staircases like this one...

...and down rustic stairways like this one...

...to bring me to the water lily pond...

...and show me that radiance rises to the top and shines on us all.

Nature Unites Us

Last Saturday afternoon I visited Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain. The beauty, diversity, and immensity of the landscape was breathtaking. Twice I came back to this small pond.

The duckweed blended with the surrounding foliage to form a blissful union of nature...

...sealed by a ring of purple lupines. And I was united in peace to people lying in the shade of trees, admiring the gardens, observing the woody plants, and strolling with their families. Nature unites us, bringing us back our true selves.