To live in this world

Summer sketches.

Hello there! And welcome to Dandelion Seeds, an illustrated newsletter in search of beauty and wonder in the world.

A couple of years ago, Jose and I stayed in a small white cabin near the Uruguayan coast, and to my great delight, the cabin overlooked a pond.

It was a small pond — it took only a few minutes to row across — but its shores were lined with cattail reeds that rippled in the wind. 

One day, while Elena napped, I painted the reeds in my sketchbook. Then, to complete the scene, I went looking for a few perfect lines from Mary Oliver and discovered “In Blackwater Woods.” 

The poem felt made for the world outside our window. It speaks of ponds and trees, of “the long tapers of cattails,” and at the end, in words as beautiful as they are poignant, it speaks of loss:

To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Here’s to living in this world,
Candace