Green Space Morning

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling

Looking for something, what can it be?

This summer is fleeting and I realized today I had not been to Six Mile Slough in several months.  Given that the weather forecast shows lots of storms in the coming day, I got myself out of the house by 7:15 a.m. to enjoy some green space.

The Slough is at its high water mark, so there were virtually no wading birds.  There was, however, a wonderful chorus of frogs, as well as occasional birds calling that I did not fully recognize.  By that I mean they weren't woodpeckers or mockingbirds or hawks, things I'm used to hearing.

It was wonderful to be forest bathing again.  Simply has been too long.

I am on a bit of mission to find the ultimate green space song, much like I did with John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" being the ultimate blue space song.  I started mulling this over as I walked, and for some reason the song "All I Want" by Joni Mitchell came up.  I had no idea why this love song would be coming to me as a green space song.  I thought of various lyrics and  I got stuck on this:

I love you when I forget about me

I love you when I forget about me.  

I thought of the many ways this applies: how I love my students best when I don't think about my role with them directly, when I bring my authentic self and let the lesson flow through me.

I love nature best when I set my self-centered thoughts are left at home, and I can just walk and listen to the frogs and watch for wildlife and be stopped on a path by a cardinal.

Nature probably loves us best when it isn't trying so hard to survive the destruction wrought by the greedy and all-consuming ways of humans.

The cultures on this globe would probably not be crashing together so if they weren't focused solely on themselves and what they want.  Yes, it applies to all. When people are tossing hate at you, it is extremely hard to keep from falling into just thinking about how it affects you. We need the broader picture.  We need to forget ourselves to love more fully.

And it probably doesn't need to be said, but we would probably be more appreciative if certain people in government would forget about themselves for a while, instead of generating the constant divisiveness.

We are broken in many ways.  But when I enter a green space, I see that there is still possibility.  Especially if I can see outside myself consistently and love all there is to love.
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When I sat down to write this, it was with a different purpose in mind.  I have now come to understand that I have two other essays to write based on what happened in the slough today.  But what I love most about this message here in "Green Space Morning" is that we can remember how to act in any given minute by remembering the line:

"I love you when I forget about me."

I think it's more powerful than we know.

And the final uplifting lyrics from "All I Want"

I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun

I want to be the one that you want to see

I want to knit you a sweater

want to write you a love letter

I want to make you feel better

I want to make you feel free.