From "A Different Yield" by Linda Hogan (from Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World):

"A woman once described a friend of hers as being such a keen listener that even the trees leaned toward her, as if they were speaking their innermost secrets into her listening ears. Over the years I've envisioned that woman's silence, a hearing full and open enough that the world told her its stories. The green leaves turned toward her, whispering tales of soft breezes and the murmurs of leaf against leaf."

This is what I aspire to, a hearing just so open and full.

"It is the last thing we learn, / listening to the creature world... "   - Jane Yolen

"Listen, listen, listen..."  -  Phyllis Holliday

The phtotographs above of the trees growing out of an old stone boundary wall dividing the hill we live on from woods. The Days of the Dead (Nov. 1 - 4) are a time when the boundaries between Worlds are easily crossed.... Quiet, now. Listen.