hug a tree

I started early, took my dog,
And visited the sea;
The mermaids in the basement
Came out to look at me,
And frigates in the upper floor
Extended hempen hands,
Presuming me to be a mouse
Aground, upon the sands,
But no man moved me till the tide
Went past my simple shoe,
And past my apron and my belt,
And past my bodice too,
And made as he would eat me up
As wholly as a dew
Upon a dandelion’s sleeve -
And then I started too.
And he - he followed close behind;
I felt his silver heel
Upon my ankle, - then my shoes
Would overflow with pearl.
Until we met the solid town,
No man he seemed to know;
And bowing with a mighty look
At me, the sea withdrew.
-Emily Dickinson

Well a wise man once said to me
If your heart don’t break you wont be free
But I’m as free as a bird
Flying out over,
flying out over the sea
I call out to the wind
But no one comes to let me in
I hear the thunder
The weight on my shoulders
The weight upon my shoulders crushin me
Shine down on this mountain
Rain down on my face
Call out to the river
To wash me out
to wash me out of this place
Well I wish that I was a sailor man
With the wheel of the ship held in my hand
But I don’t like the water
I’m more like the anchor
I wish I was the anchor in me

Sometimes I wish I was a sin
So the ones I love would let me in

I wouldn’t have to try
To find the answers
To give them all the answers they need
Shine down on this mountain
Rain down on my face
Call out to the river
To wash me out
to wash me out of this place.
-Kasey Chambers

Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no one suspects the days to be gods.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Swimming in the lake…. laughing with friends…. dinner on the boat by sunset…..
but the very best thing? Driving the boat, of course.

Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it.
-Emily Dickinson

you really haven’t lived to you come upon a boater from Ecuador playing Georgia on My Mind on a simple bamboo flute while you are paddling on a remote lake in NC.

Beauty likes to keep away from the public glare. It likes to find a neglected or abandoned place, for it knows that it is only here that it will meet the kind of light that repeats its shape, dignity and nature. -Ezra Pound

A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. ~Rachel Carson