Reverence
Seagulls stand
where water touches shore,
awakening with new light.
Feet awash in gold,
they do nothing.
It looks like nothing to me.
No flapping, no shrieking,
no stealing sandwiches,
no turn of head
or lift of wing:
nothing.
If I had seen myself
just now, sitting
motionless on the sand,
facing the sun as it lifts itself into being,
emptying myself to receive its light
I might have named that
nothing, too.
What I can see with my eyes…
now that is nothing.
I know, I know,
gulls are gulls,
and just because they’re still
doesn’t mean they’re praying.
But I tire of this line of thought.
Haven’t we followed it
enough, enough, enough?
There is Earth magic
patiently waiting
behind all the nothing we see,
and it starts
with imagining
that seagulls could behold
a rising sun, as I do,
with reverence
Every late afternoon of his life that both weather & mom permitted, my first dog Jake first sat, later lay, on a west-facing pasture slope and silently watched the sun set behind surrounding forest.
He died at 2:30 pm on Easter Sunday 2017, in his back yard overlooking his pasture doing what he loved best; gazing lovingly at his new best friend, Dr. Elms, as she eased him out of this life & into the next. He had refused to go to sleep for an hour, even after 3 full doses of sedative. I think he knew if he closed his eyes he wouldn't open them again. Finally she said this isn't doing any of us any good & injected the lethal dose. His eyes closed, breathing & heart stopped immediately.
A few hours later doing barn chores, as I passed over his sunset watch spot I felt him whoosh! into my heart and heard his squeaky voice exclaim "I can fly with the birds now mommy!"
Reverence. It’s become my favourite word. It’s almost onomatopoeic. I’m BG, surrounded by gulls on the beach, people often get out of the water, turn to the sun, eyes closed, palms turned up towards it, and just stand there. Yes, to dry off, but if you actually do it, you feel this energy enter you. It’s meditative. It’s strange, at first, it almost looks cultish when you see a bunch of people doing it. But you’re filled with reverence too if you practice it yourself.