So much heaviness these days. It seems harder and harder to find a ray of light. For me, Nature is always a refuge, especially as I grow older. Work comes and goes, friends come and go, bad news seems to be everywhere, health challenges wax and wane, and the noise of life overwhelms.

Maybe just take a breath. And a walk in the woods.

Poet Mary Oliver puts it beautifully.

When I am Among the Trees

by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,“

and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

The seasons are changing. The air is sharper; the colors are brighter. The light is there: we just have to find it.