Cool Person Guest Blogger Daisy Hickman

You know, there are some people in this world who always show up, who always support those around them.  In a small town, they’re the ones welcoming their neighbors with cassaroles and volunteering at special events.  Daisy Hickman is one of those awesome people, and I feel very honored to know her. 

So today’s Cool Person Guest Blogger is Daisy Hickman, poet, author, and blogger.  She has a bachelor’s in legal studies and master’s in sociology ~ an interesting combination ~ and she is the founder and proprietess extraordinaire of SunnyRoomStudio, a creative space for kindred spirits. Every Friday she posts or hosts other bloggers on spirituality, creative pursuits, nature, and meditative musings.  You can find her at SunnyRoomStudio on Facebook, @dhsunwriter on Twitter, and sunwriter [at] sunnyroomstudio.net via email.

A more caring person, you’ll never find! (A bit of a confession: she so generously sent me this guest post ages ago, and I’ve been a very neglectful host.  I apologise, Daisy!)

 

To Catch the Sky

by Daisy Hickman

Thank you, Tamara, for your kind invitation to share a few words with your readers.  It’s my pleasure.  And this morning, walking through McCrory Gardens—a wonderful 25-acre expanse maintained by SDSU in Brookings, South Dakota—I encountered some stunning autumn colors that seemed like an inspirational backdrop for a guest post.

It was the blissful kind of day when one could easily imagine sharing time with Thoreau or Whitman. 

Our dogs, Noah and Orion, two spirited, high-maintenance schnauzers, were with us, and apparently, quite happy to be running around outdoors on a 78 degree day at the close of September.  With nature as our other companion, we explored groves of trees—maple, ash, and oak—awash in color; marveled at the lush prairie grass, swaying in the warm breeze; enjoyed interludes of silence.  My husband, John, is from Ohio, so we went looking for the buckeye tree, and I was interested in finding the showy mum garden. 

But, otherwise, we walked along without specific direction or targeted ambition. 

Like small fish in a large pond, we swam easily with the motion of color that surrounded us.  Golds, reds, yellows.  The deep orange of a tall, striking tree that one could only notice by looking up and out. 

“Wow,” we said, when we spotted it.  It looked brilliant and imposing, like a skyscraper in Manhattan.

And the tree seemed all-knowing, as if a trusted keeper of important life secrets.     

I’m not certain what kind of tree it is, so am including a picture.  

Of course it doesn’t really matter.  A generic label could never capture its grandeur, its perfect sense of place amidst the hues of autumn, the silky blue sky overhead, which framed it. 

But when I looked for a quote to include, I found this:

“October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.” ~Nova Bair 

Perhaps the tree is a poplar.  It fits the description.  If not, however, I’m perfectly content to simply let it be a tree.  An autumn tree that speaks of a dynamic, ever-changing universe and nature’s inexplicable beauty.  What we don’t know in life, can be as wonderful as what we do know. 

It’s purely a matter of releasing our minds from the drudgery of thought – permitting them to run free against the finery of an autumn landscape. 

The peacefulness of a moment in time is never dependent on thinking; rather, it is a powerful spiritual gift that awaits us when we decide to claim it.  When we are ready to walk with nature hand-in-hand as intimate friends, while looking up now and then to catch the sky.

Thank you so much for visiting, Daisy! I'm honored!

 

Daisy Hickman