Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide

Last week I featured the wonderful effects nature has on us from a scientific point of view. Today I thought I would offer a poet’s version of the same thing. Just reading inspires me. It’s by that most wonderful poet Mary Oliver, but it’s one I haven’t seen before. May it lift your heart and awaken your passion to protect the natural world:

When I am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the 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.”