Daily Nourishment for October 28, 2024: Let Go as Trees Let Go Their Leaves with Guidance from Lauren Winner
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 35 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
A Note from Lauren: This week’s offerings will be calendar-themed, as we move toward All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints’ Day.
Pause.
Slowly read this poem from May Sarton’s “The Autumn Sonnets,” pausing and taking a deep breath at every comma, semi-colon, dash, or period.
If I can let you go as trees let go
Their leaves, so casually, one by one;
If I can come to know what they do know,
That fall is the release, the consummation,
Then fear of time and the uncertain fruit
Would not distemper the great lucid skies
This strangest autumn, mellow and acute.
If I can take the dark with open eyes
And call it seasonal, not harsh or strange
(For love itself may need a time of sleep),
And, treelike, stand unmoved before the change,
Lose what I lose to keep what I can keep,
The strong root still alive under the snow,
Love will endure – if I can let you go.
If you wish, read the poem a second time.
Prompt.
Part One: What does the invitation to let go “as trees let go their leaves” stir in you? What, or whom, might you need to thus let go? Write for about five minutes. (Stop reading till you’ve done that.)
Part Two: If you wish to write for another few minutes: “Lose what I lose to keep what I can keep” - how do you respond?
Want More?
Want more on May Sarton? Here’s a wonderful interview.
And here’s another autumn poem by Sarton.
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Workshops, Gatherings, & Resources
—New Resource: A Solo Writing Retreat for Election Season and Beyond
—New Resource: Parenting with Art® Lectio Divina Cards Information about ordering these cards can be found in my Books + Spiritual Direction + Retreats & Gatherings email newsletter . To stay in the loop on all of my work, writing, book recs, and more, subscribe to that weekly newsletter at charlottedonlon.com/subscribe.
—October Co-Writing is live. All SDW Members get free co-writing through November. If you aren’t a member and would like to join us, please contact me at charlotte@charlottedonlon.com and I’ll hook you up.
—The Great Belonging Project is live here and The Great Belonging Project October Refresh will take place Oct 1-Oct 31.
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Lauren Winner. Lauren Winner is a writer, professor, Episcopal Priest, & spiritual director.
Read Lauren’s full bio here.
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