The great blue heron
steps into the pond,
one step, exactly where she intends,
thoughtful, graceful, watching.
She knows the way to the Caribbean,
and has seen the northern tundra,
but now she is here.
As readily as she attends
to the magnetic streams of earth
and the ancient skyward pathways,
now she watches this pond,
the waves of motion beneath,
the glimmers of life here and there, all of them.
Her wisdom is not understanding
but attention, pure presence,
here in this breeze, under this sun
and these heron-colored clouds.
The resting frog, the shadowy fish,
the snake hiding in the reeds
all are within her gaze.
Without her willing them to be there,
they are there, and she watches them.
The humans passing by,
the drifting of the clouds,
the rotation of the earth,
the movement of the stars through the ages
all are in her stillness, in her gaze.
Her watching encompasses everything;
her listening goes out into all the world.
Serene Adept,
she takes a second step.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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