Do you feel the shift?
Love is in the air.
This winter Valentine day.
You can see it in the red patches of snow
where female bobcats coming into heat
have left their mark,
a card, of sorts, for the males to read.
You can hear it in the birdsong
as they start to shift from hushed winter calls
to soaring love songs;
or in the pounding of woodpeckers beaks
tapping out their staccato profiles.
Coyote, fox, beaver and more follow suit
responding to the lengthening days
and subtle changes of season.
Barred owls soon will sing their
enchanting mating call.
There is no such thing as an ordinary day
when we tune our senses to the natural world.
And, there is more than enough to distract,
to pull us away from the here and now.
More hard times, global and personal.
More hectic days that push and pull.
More bright shiny things
that insist you need them.
Stop.
Just stop here for a moment
and breathe.
You need nothing more than a moment of quiet,
outside, wherever you find yourself.
Listen…for the birds and the crescendo of their songs.
Look…at who, besides humans, have walked here.
Are there raccoon tracks?
Signs of rabbits and squirrels?
Close your eyes…smell the hint of spring.
You do not need perfect wilderness
in order to come home to yourself.
You need only to remember who you are:
a beautiful being, as Wild as the ones
you are seeing and hearing and picturing,
now that you’ve slowed for a moment,
stepping out of all that rings and notifies.
Choose, for right now,
not to be consumed by all
that we humans have constructed.
Just for now,
Stop.
Close your eyes.
Remember who you are.
Where you come from.
And what Wild stuff you are made of.
