“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu
The birds are leaving for winter places
on this, my birthday. I’m staying here.
The seasons are changing. So will I.
I don’t know my destination or if
I will return here. So it is.
A heat wave week cresting and breaking
here so far away from an ocean
that would feel so cooling and yet
is warming every day and every year.
I feel mid-year changes within and without.
In this dark sky, a constellating dragon
winds around that constant – North Star, Polaris.
But it’s not constant. Nothing is constant.
Draco moves. Polaris moves. The sky changes.
Things are changing as you read this.
Draco shown in a star atlas by Johannes Hevelius in 1690. The circle indicates the changing position of the north celestial pole over a cycle of 26,000 years.
But with the Moon, it’s about phases.
Crescent, gibbous, waxing, waning.That’s what happens.
Crescent, less than half illuminated, and gibbous
more than half. Waxing: growing. Waning: shrinking.
But really they’re all there, all the time.
Writing the Day 