Remembering summer joy in deep winter (Hexagram 58)

Why I Am Happy

Now has come, an easy time. I let it
roll. There is a lake somewhere
so blue and far nobody owns it.
A wind comes by and a willow listens
gracefully.

I hear all this, every summer. I laugh
and cry for every turn of the world,
its terribly cold, innocent spin.
That lake stays blue and free; it goes
on and on.

And I know where it is.


~ William Stafford


... I know where it is, too. In the summer of 1995, I passed a marvelous week with six female friends and one beloved Lab named Bubba, up in the Ottawa area. One afternoon, we all trekked into a wood ... and to a "secret lake" that one woman knew by heart. The lake was small, its shore dotted only with one wee building -- a ranger's cabin. We found a perfect terrace of rock, shucked our clothes, and dove in. We swam, bobbed, laughed long into the open air, and lay about in the sun through that soft and drawling afternoon. Pure joy!


Some links about Hexagram / Principle 58, JOY ... here, here, here, here, and here.