Saturday in the Park

Rather than go to the gym today, I went to Willow Springs park near my house and enjoyed being outside. A good breeze blew through the park, and the gray sky kept things comfortable.

Things I saw:

• kids playing at the edge of the frog pond (where they weren't supposed to be playing, of course)
• a young couple from my church--Cherokee United Methodist--and their two small children
• another couple I've seen at church but don't know
• a waitress from El Torito
• a woman, a friend, from my church, my Sunday School class even, who also works at ETSU
• bluebrown Buffalo Mountain and its range
• smoke from a fire over in the Cherokee Road area, I think
• a father playing guitar on a blanket in the grass, his little boy--close to a year old, maybe--sitting in the grass nearby in a striped shirt and overalls and a bright red cap
• three young men and a girl playing basketball
• an honors student from ETSU
• a young woman who met me on a bicycle several times and smiled every time
• lots of little piles of dog poop either by the trail or on it (watch this blog for an upcoming "Meditation on Poop")

What I listened to: Speaking of Faith's "Approaching Prayer"

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/approachingprayer/index.shtml

The program included the following: Here's a reading from a collection of Rilke's most religious poetry, translated here by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows.

"I love you, gentlest of Ways, who ripened us as we wrestled with you. You, the great homesickness we could never shake off; you, the forest that always surrounded us; you, the song we sang in every silence; you, dark net threading through us. On the day you made us, you created yourself, and we grew sturdy in your sunlight… Let your hand rest on the rim of Heaven now and mutely bear the darkness we bring over you."