The opportunity for new insight
can so easily pass us by—
that potential opening to life lost.

With this in mind, I pull on
long johns, then sweatpants,
turtleneck layered with a fuzzy sweater,

knit scarf, puffer jacket,
and my daughter’s alpaca hat
with braided tassels.

And I make my way to the trees
by the estuary, tiny flashlight in hand,
walk silently over wood planks,

through the forest of miniature oaks,
halting to quiet my thumping heart
when unseen animals scurry in the brush.

Soon, a buttercup moon rises
over a distant hill’s rounded breast,
huge and brightly illuminating

the dusky night woods. In that sudden
stillness, only rhythmic sounds
of frogs, some crickets playing

their mating songs, the crashing
of waves on a barely visible shore.
With Venus and Jupiter shining

down on me as well,
I drink dippers of blessings and
give thanks for also being of this world.

:: Carolyn Chiltin Casas

By Carolyn Chilton Casas

Carolyn Chilton Casas has lived on the Central Coast for 53 years, the perfect landscape for a love of hiking and playing beach volleyball. She is a Reiki master who often explores ways of healing in her writing. Her articles and poems have appeared in Braided Way, Energy, A Network for Grateful Living, Reiki News Magazine, and in other publications. You can read more of her work on Facebook, Instagram (mindfulpoet_), and in her first collection of poems, “Our Shared Breath.”