Wander With Wild Things

Years ago, my grandmother gave me a book of the writings of May Sarton (From May Sarton's Well), a writer and poet whose like I have not encountered since. I must have been in high school then and I remember reading through her words, graced with the photography of Edith Royce Schade, and feeling like someone had interpreted part of my soul. Sarton had a deep love for the natural world, as well as an uncanny insight into the workings of human thought and emotion. Her words were at once inspiring, challenging, and haunting and several passages have stuck with me over the years. One in particular I wanted to share with you evoked a sharp longing for what I desired for my own life:

I would like to believe when I die that I have given myself away like a tree that sows seeds every spring and never counts the loss, because it is not loss, it is adding to future life. It is the tree's way of being. Strongly rooted perhaps, but spilling out its treasure on the wind.

May we all have the grace and generosity to live as the trees do and add to the future by conserving the beauty that surrounds us in the present.