Saturday, February 21, 2015

A Pastoral Prescription


 When life is hard,
harsh, or heavy,
  I walk to unlock
 the simplicity,
softness, and light,
that is blocked 
from my heart.


When my soul is bare,
my mind a flurry of worry,
I am moved by my body
towards the hills 
 that surround me,
to walk.


 The meadow is medicine,
and is taken visually,
to alleviate the pain
of an achy psyche. 


But the mountains 
seem bitter; still,
I stop for a dose
of their snowy splendour,
in which I'm engrossed.


No strange side effects found
 in this pastoral prescription,
apart from the fruit bearing trees,
whose beauty can lead to addiction.


Getting my fix
of floral and fauna,
 (a preventative measure
against emotional trauma),
I make my way back to
the place framed by boughs,
 as I move my body
 to the space
where it's housed.
And I walk...


 Thanks for visiting!
Happy weekend!


Sharing at: 
 Wow Us Wednesdays,  What's It Wednesday, Tweak It Tuesday,  
Tuesdays at Our Home, The Art of Home-Making Mondays, 
Amaze Me Monday,  Inspire Me Monday, Mosaic Monday,  
Poetry Pantry, Sunlit Sunday, Saturday Sparks, Home Sweet Home, 
Feathered Nest Friday, Simple & Sweet Fridays, Friendship Friday

87 comments:

  1. A pretty post and lovely pictures. The mountains are amazing. Wishing you a wonderful weekend. Heather

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  2. Hello sweet Poppy! Your words and photos are like a balm to the soul - so beautiful and thought-provoking. Thanks for always blessing me :) Happy weekend to you!

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  3. This prescription will probably do a body more good than all the ones found at a pharmacy. And with much fewer nasty side effects. All of us need to find ways to unblock the goodness that life sometimes throws at us and I can't imagine a healthier one.

    May all your walks be blessings, Poppy, and may your aches and pains turn to joy quickly.

    Sending love,
    Dewena

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    1. I think I left out a word above, dear friend, or I guess what I meant to say was that we all need to find ways to let the goodness in When life throws its worst at us.

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  4. Poppy... Beautiful photos and calming, soothing words....I hope your heart is singing! Smiles...Susan

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  5. So beautiful, Poppy, and when you look at the photos you can indeed believe in the healing power of nature. A lovely post.
    Amalia
    xo

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  6. Love "the flurry of worries". - we all seem to have that. Thanks for the pretty photos and poetry.

    Judy

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  7. You're so very gifted Poppy. Your words and pictures are like a massage for the soul...and you know how much I like those ;).

    xxx

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  8. Gorgeous photos and scenery ~ that is my kind of prescription! Have a great weekend!

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  9. Poppy - You and I need to walk together! I know we're oceans apart, but I sense a kindred spirit in you!!! I love sharing a thought, or uplifting encouraging words through the power of the mountains, the sky, the sea, the trees. You have a gift, Poppy of bringing more life to a beautiful picture than the picture itself. I loved the words you wrote with the pictures you took... indeed as someone else said - a beautiful massage to the soul as I walked with you around your little piece of heaven! I hope that whatever is weighing heavy on your heart will be healed by the pastoral prescription of the views around you! :)

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  10. Beauty can be balm to the soul...I hope everything is alright for you...sending up prayers on your behalf.

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  11. So glad you shared that prescription since I wasn't feeling my best today, but the snowy mountains did help me!

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  12. Lovely. I've not walked in a couple of weeks because of blah weather and it's dusty out right now. Boo! So crochet is my therapy. :) Best wishes, Tammy

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  13. Hello Poppy, I would enjoy a walk with all this beautiful scenery surrounding me..The mountains are gorgeous! A lovely poem and beautiful images. I wish you a happy weekend!

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  14. The beauty that surrounds you is your cathedral. Your thoughts are peaceful and calming. A lovely prescription.

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  15. love poppi, what a beautiful text and images for what beautiful !!! they have a nice weekend, all love of angie

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  16. Poppy, this is my kind of medicine. Walking is the best thing I do when I'm overwrought or if there is a knotty problem to untangle. Very often, walking gently eases the knots and I return home with a solution or at least a way to deal with whatever has been bothering me.
    Your mountain views are lovely, as are the orchards. Thanks for taking us along on your walk.

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  17. it's as if to me... you're at the top of the world.
    the mountains... even in the picture... seem to be protecting you.
    as if saying. i am solid. i am here. i am unchanging. everything will be alright. i have your back.
    only you said it even more beautifully than the mountains and i ever could.
    there is music in your soul. even in a simple walk.
    and thank you for sharing it with us. it helps.
    xoxo♥ wishing for you a lightness of being darling girl. ♥

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  18. A beautiful poem and scenery. I love to take walks when I don't fell just right. Miss it right now, too much snow to walk safely.

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  19. You certainly have a lovely place to walk in!!! Those mountains are magnificent!!!

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  20. What a lovely walk you took us on ;-) Beautiful pictures and words.
    Lori from LL Farm

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  21. Magical pictures and a poetess...you my dear Poppy! Have a wonderful weekend :)

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  22. First, I have to thank you so much for coming over to help rescue me and my blog from the Commenting Devil. I am not sure it is over yet, but I have great minds working on it. Very sweet of you to go to the trouble you did to help!

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  23. Our thoughts have been with friends - real time and blogosphere kind - in Greece this last week. Hoping the tensions there ease a bit at least for the weekend and that spirits are renewed with the hope of possibility~ Hugs, Jackie

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  24. No one can poetically express a simple walk through creation more eloquently than you, Poppy. "No strange side effects found in this pastoral prescription..." -- a wonderful phrase. The first photo is breathtaking. xxx ~ Nancy

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  25. Beautiful views and poetry, Poppy. I'd love to stroll through those fields and perhaps sit under a tree and admire the mountain views. Enjoy.

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  26. Oh Poppy, what stunning photo's. Just to be able to walk and see those beautiful mountains. It would take your breath away. A very lovely post. Thanks you so much for sharing this with us.
    Such beauty in your poetry.
    Mary

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  27. Ah...I will take two of these and probably won't need to call you in the morning! You should been a poet...or maybe you are! Thank you for sharing your beautiful "drugs" Ms. Poppy :)

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  28. Beautiful photos and a pretty thought provoking post! There's no greenery to see here at all, just frigid days, but there is serenity outside even without greenery.

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  29. That is poetry for my heart right now. It has been so cold and so difficult trudging through snow, that I haven't been able to appreciate nature for a few weeks. Today, I bundled up and went for a short walk, camera in hand, to banish my cabin fever.

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  30. Overwhelmingly beautiful scenery... I'm almost speechless.
    A walk in that kind of landscape must be both soothing and elevating.
    Have a lovely Sunday!

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  31. A wonderful wise post - I would pin it really on my wall (and not at Pinterest - ).
    Thank you.
    Its the recipe of my life too and I'm glad, that I have naturally things around here...
    Have a sunny sunday

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  32. Wonderful poetry! As I love walking, enjoying nature I know that the best prescription there is.
    We have a lovely sunny winter Sunday, hope you have sun too.

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  33. Another beautiful post - and so true..nature and being outside of ourselves for a while is the best medicine

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  34. absolutely grand and beautiful. your words that display the affects upon your psyche also entice my appreciation even more.

    gracias for sharing such beauty

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  35. Wonderful place you share Poppy. The contrast of the early spring meadows and the hash beauty of the snow peaked mountains create a wonderful extended metaphor of how a soul can be. Hope for blooming trees for you.

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  36. we all need to be beauty addicted to live...such a wonderful post with amazing words and photos...

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  37. Such beautiful words and pictures. I hope that your psyche is all well now and will stay that way. I love the idea of an addiction to the beauty of fruit trees, I can see how that could happen quite easily! xx

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  38. Both your words and photos are beautiful, Poppy! There's so much beauty in nature to help cure our psyches pain. If only more people realized that!

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  39. lovely.. nature is the best medicine :)

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  40. lovely photos... nature does a number on our moods... you've written this well

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  41. Good Morning, Poppy! Beautiful post and words. There is nothing like nature and her many glories to soothe a soul.

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  42. ha. the meadow is medicine taken visually...yes it is....makes me think of warmer thoughts...nature is my greatest medicine when i need to get away and think....lovely pics too...

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  43. Poppy, I loved taking a 'walk' with you this morning. I do agree with you that walking is good medicine. If a person is feeling 'under the weather,' walking in nature always seems to lift a person up a bit. I like the idea of walking to unlock the simplicity and the light. What a beautiful and refreshing area you have to wander in.

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  44. I found your blog via sunlit Sunday, I really love your photos and thoughts. will read more. take care Jaana

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  45. This post was a medicine walk for me, as well. The photos are balm to the soul. "The meadow is medicine and is taken visually." I take my medicine visually too, in nature. Loved all of this glorious post.

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  46. absolutely healing; thanks for sharing

    much love...

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  47. Poppy I love your pastoral prescription....one I need and is lacking in winter....but I can get a boost from yours.

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  48. Thank you for your beautiful words and photos this morning, Poppy. I am aching for the lush trees and landscape...nothing but barren land and trees covered in snow here still.

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  49. I enjoy walking too, it can be so cathartic, it's just unfortunate that the landscape here is not so beautiful or dramatic. At least I have the sea !

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  50. Nature heals and lifts us up ~ Thanks for the lovely words and pictures ~ And nice to meet you Poppy ~

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  51. Poppy Dear,
    Oh these views, the splendor, the beauty, tranquility and peacefulness of the mountains lightly iced with snow and the clouds heavily burdened with rain. To walk along the valleys and hills and collect ones thoughts, heal ones heart, comfort the soul with scents and scenes of Mother Natures finest.
    I will take your prescription with a gratitude, indeed so much healthier than waiting in any germ generated Doctors Office. My walks are where I find solace as well...
    Warmest of Hugs Dearest Poppy!
    Jemma

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  52. Oh the depth of your soul spoken and so beautiful, it stirred my own spirit and I loved your walk. I too have to get out and walk and for whatever I see, I take in fresh air and I recompose and then when I renter my little world, if nothing else, I had a slight soothing to my soul and I am refreshed to begin once again. Oh to walk in the beauty that you find at your foot path, mine is rather dull in comparison, and yet we can relish in what you share a take a piece of it and tuck it in for another dawn. Happy thoughts Poppy and I shall be on my way hopefully Tuesday...think of me. Hugs~

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  53. mountains, trees, and love,
    they help us at difficult times.

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  54. Delightful poetry Poppy and you are very lucky to have green rolling hills to walk for therapy.
    Thank you for linking to Mosaic Monday, I'm enjoying our weekly visits.

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  55. another lovely peaceful visit.
    ZQ

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  56. For me too, walking in nature is a great lifter of spirits. Your environment is particularly delightful, and I love those mountains!

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  57. I´m there...for sure! Love your pictures...love love love!
    Titti

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  58. i would happily take that prescription. i don't care if i'll be overdosed :)

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  59. Love your ' pastoral prescription'. What a clever way to heal with no side effects :)x ~ Thanks for sharing beautiful views and words!

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  60. There is no place like a prayer than a walk in His creation. Just beautiful Poppy, thank you for sharing this with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays :)

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  61. Love the mountains and olive trees.......beautiful images Poppy!

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  62. How blessed you are to live in such beauty, dear Poppy.

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  63. I feel the same way about walking, although you expressed it much more eloquently than I ever could! I miss the outdoors and walking lately, it's too cold for that now. Your lovely photos are a comfort and have me longing for greener days!! :)

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  64. A beautiful post as always...lovely photos and thoughts to ponder.

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  65. So Sweet ..yes nature sure is the best antidote...and doesn't cost a dime!
    Had a visitor from Greece in our cafe yesterday...made me smile and felt like asking him if he knew you....:))) xo

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  66. Coming to you from Mosaic Monday. I hope you find we way down here at the bottom of the list. Crete is a far away place that I have only read about in ancient Greek history. I'd love to travel there. Your inspirations and photos bring comfort and peace. Keep walking.

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  67. Like you, I walk for all manner of things. Mostly I walk to relieve the stress of the day, and it works. Like you, I have a view of mountains when I walk, but my view is across water.
    The words and images you've shared today are just beautiful!

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  68. Your images could calm even the most troubled mind, I believe. Your words and thoughts will stay with me as I walk amongst the green fields of Normandy today.

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  69. I think I need to take your prescription, Poppy, to set little things right and as a preventive measure against letting things grow in supposed importance that needn't do so. I hope life is, for the most past, treating you kindly.

    Karen

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  70. Great photos! The outdoors does provide so much for us.

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  71. Oh dear...so beautiful! The mountains, all the green....just lovely!
    The nature is peace for the soul...
    Have a happy week and take care Poppy.
    Warm hug,
    Titti

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  72. Dearest Poppy, Mother Nature knows well how to treat us, it seems that we don't know how to preserve nature's character, how to respect its rules. Hopefully, we live in a genuine land where authenticity and beauty match perfectly well. We are blessed to enjoy this Mediterranean nook.

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  73. Beautiful words and pics Poppy! Thank you for joining Home Sweet Home!

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  74. Breathtaking and gorgeous photos. I love the contrast. Beautifully written as well.

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  75. I agree, your photos calm the soul!
    Thanks so much for sharing at AMAZE ME MONDAY!
    Blessings,
    Cindy

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  76. I want to apologize for not responding to your comments but they ended up in my spam box and I have only just found them. I am so sorry. This is a great poem. Walking is indeed a wonderful and potent medicine.

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  77. Always a pleasure to be in the lap of nature:)

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  78. Thanks for sharing your tonic. Your walk has done me good!

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  79. Just lovely; nothing like walking in a beautiful setting to regain peace.

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  80. Beautiful being with you in the fresh air. I have sent our summer on her way over to you, those snowy mountains will burst into life soon!
    Wren x

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Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I really appreciate hearing from all of you! Have a great day!