It has been a tricky couple of weeks around here for one reason or another. But for some reason, a stanza from Theodore Roethke keeps popping into my mind (from his wonderful sestina, The Waking):

Great Nature has another thing to do

To you and me; so take the lively air,

And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

Great Nature! Great Nature has given another goose family seven (seven!) chartreuse goslings, who are definitely learning by going where they go.

And just like the goslings, we learn by going. In the water, and on the earth. Even when, as Theodore Roethke goes on to say, “what falls away is always.”

I’m grateful for that – that learning – that happens by going. I’m grateful for the learning that happens when we do what we have to do, and go where we have to go. And I’m grateful for all the ways in which Great Nature makes it all so lovely as we go.