stay awhile

In a private collection

My husband and I just couldn’t bring ourselves to sell this painting.
I’m hoping I’ll paint another, because the little building in the distance
is a funny little beat-up camp on Thompson’s Point where we’ve
spent some grand summer days. The dirt roads on the Point glow
pink and violet in the summer shade. Such heaven to be among the trees.

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.”

— Mary Oliver
from “When I Am Among the Trees”