Sometimes you run into messengers or they run into you. Two of them happened to appear in my life on Wednesday of Holy Week before Easter. One had two legs, the other four.
A young man probably in his late twenties or early thirties ran up behind my husband and I as we were hiking. He was running with a white mixed-breed Labrador Retriever trailing on his heels. Immediately, I noticed the young man’s bright fluorescent yellow shirt with the word Blessed scrolled across his chest in large letters.
His eyes were sparkly as he smiled and huffed and puffed breathless. “Do you know where the cutoff to the loop is on the trail? Did I miss it?”
“It’s up ahead,” my husband said pointing.
I stood somewhat speechless still surprised by the runner and dog.
“Thanks,” said the Blessed one.
Then that young man looked to his dog and told the dog to tell us something. I swear that dog’s willing face smiled and just one “woof” later, the two were sprinting off as the young man looked over his shoulder translating what he was certain the dog had just uttered.
“He (the dog) said you’re beautiful. Both of you!”
Not a minute later, we watched the two light-footed travelers ascend a hill in the distance between two faces of cliff in the gateway to the return loop of the trail. The dog followed closely, tail high and wagging on the heels of his bright-shirted master.
As they vanished over the rise, I was grateful for both of them.
Effervescent messengers, those two, who just happened to bless our day with their uplifting countenance. What an inspiration! Poetry in motion!
And speaking of poetry…
In keeping with National Poetry Month, here are touching words from two especially beloved American poets who have recently passed. Both are messengers to the world and continue to touch hearts with their beautiful poems.
Utterance
Sitting over words/
very late I have heard a whispered sighing/
not far/
like a night wind in pines or like the sea in the dark/
the echo of everything that has ever/
been spoken/
still spinning in one syllable/
between the earth and silence/
—W. S. Merwin
and
Messenger
My work is loving the world./
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—/
equal seekers of sweetness./
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums./
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand./
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?/
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me/
keep my mind on what matters,/
which is my work,/
which is mostly standing still and learning to be/
astonished./
The phoebe, the delphinium./
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture,/
which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,/
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart/
and these body-clothes,/
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy/
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,/
telling them all, over and over, how it is/
that we live forever./
—Mary Oliver
Sending a message of hope and blessings to all. ♥
Thanks for stopping by. ♥