I took a few writing workshop series with Dori Ostermiller, (novelist and founder of Writers In Progress,Florence, MA.) , which simply fertilized and watered and shone sunlight down upon me, with her gift to always ask "What Stays With You?"
Long after I've taken a leave of absence from work for health necessity, and writing workshop support, and been handed the quiet life of resting and walks and isolation, together with the gift of time and taking photographs and drawing and writing things, those words stay with me...
in the woods, doing dishes,mixing up herbal formulas , as words come to mind,relishing a quiet moment outside with my beloved as the season whirls by and the cool wind creeps in.
Somehow the sentiment brings me swiftly to the present moment, to the awake and awareness of what is before me. And at the same time, it somehow fosters the retaining of what was the essence of this, and this, and this moment...and that, I have discovered, is what stays with me.
" What Stays With You? " has an unquestioning depth, and quiet, and welcome to it.
And has become one of my favorite things, in gratitude.
