Too often, I look only for myself in reflections. I let the eyes of my friends and family tell me who I am. I check my hair or clothes in mirrors, critically noting imperfections, thinking about who I am on the surface.
Then a magical moment happened, standing on a bridge, water flowing musically below. My down coat was tightly zipped against the chill. Leaf mold scent mingled with the fragrance of coming snow. I looked down, and I didn’t see myself at all. Instead I saw the whole world reflected there, sky, clouds, trees, birds. My own self-critical thoughts stilled, and I heard the trees give windy sighs, their summer burdens discarded, in the embrace of winter dreams.
burdens lift away
self lost in the larger world
beauty calms, renews
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Inspired by the weekly Haībun challenge, with the prompt of water.
78 thoughts on “Reflections Haībun”
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Friendly Fairy Tales 
Exquisite and powerful work. A real joy to read and ponder.
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Thanks, my new friend. As your site is, too. Cheers, Brenda
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Certain words are like oxytocin!!!!! your words are all having a certain key-factor….Wonderful!!!
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Thanks, I’m glad my words made you feel oxytocin, one of my favorite hormones. 🙂 I hope you have a fantastic week,
Brenda
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Such a lovely scene, giving you serenity from its reflection of the world, not oneself. It is so challenging not to focus on our own self and using our own mirrored image. But, by looking at this water, it filled you with that world view, making all of our private thoughts irrelevant, making us feel part of a bigger world does lessen our flaws, our worries and our own insecurities. This was about yourself but you gave us a gift by going beyond yourself. It reminds us of this quality in nature to make our little “hill of beans” insignificant. Yet happy and blessed to be of this world, included in its beauty. Thanks, Brenda!
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I had hoped to share some of that peacefulness of nature. I’m glad you felt it, too. Serenity is a good word for the feeling nature gives me. Hugs, Brenda
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With such a beautiful first line I knew the haibun was going to be good. From both perception to description this haibun just shines and shines. The philosophy is captured just so well, and I am still humbled and stunned after reading this. Really, very beautiful writing, Classical, to be read a few times – every now and then, to keep the idea in one’s mind. Very nice indeed.
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Thank you, what a nice comment to make. I really have grown as a writer since joining the haibun party. This one I was trying to make shorter, since my recent ones had grown so long. Short is harder for me. I’m glad people like it. 🙂 Warmly, Brenda
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Well, it is the right length somehow, just feels right – but definitely interesting about shorter being harder. The longer haibun have a lovely exploratory charm for the reader, and often forcing more than one haiku from the writer. This piece was really something special, but as the writer you must have felt that. Of course what you wrote goes beyond just a nice piece. At least it does for me, and I am sure for many.
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I tried to express how I feel in those moments of release I achieve out in the wild. I like the longer pieces that tell more of a story, but I also like short pieces that crystalize a feeling worth revisiting. For me, the process of writing is so enjoyable in such a lonely way that it feels amazing that others would feel the same way about it. I created it out of solitariness, as I do always. Does that make sense? Every time I publish, it’s a leap of faith, no matter what my personal feelings about it are. Your words have come to mean a lot to me. Thank you for them.
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Seeing the world in the reflection instead of ones self and how that puts things into perspective. A great way to illustrate the point.
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Thanks!
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A beautiful description of a very powerful moment. This made me smile deep down inside.
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Thanks, what a nice thing to say. It’s a moment that still makes me smile. 🙂
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What a wonderful way of showing us that we need to look beyond ourself!
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Thanks, I’m glad my sharing my epiphany inspired others. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Warmly, Brenda
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Oh, this quite beautiful, and so true!♥ Thoughts of self in on way or another can be a preoccupation for all of us. It’s good to be overwhelmed by a piece of the universe we are in – it’s big enough! It’s funny how the larger something is sometimes, the more it gets ignored, and the tiny things become the magnified ones that we blow out of all proportion. We shall learn – one day!! 😀
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Some times the tiny things are all we have room for. Luckily the universe keeps reminding us. 🙂
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Deep but elegant.
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Still waters. 🙂
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I love this Brenda. So reassuring and loving. xo
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Thank you!
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Beautiful and comforting…and a needed reminder 🙂
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Thanks, it made my day brighter.
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Beautiful post,I love it,those moments when you are all alone with nature and everything feels magical. It’s moments like these,that everything seems to fit together and one know why one is alive.
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Exactly, I love moments like that. 🙂
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how beautiful to find enlightenment within nature’s pure essence, Brenda. love this especially your words in the haiku…self lost in a larger world. perfection.
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Thank you, my friend. I love to walk in nature, and lose myself there, and find something new. 🙂
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That’s just beautiful!
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Thank you!
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Brenda, your reflections in the water bring back the summer feeling I have when gazing upon a starry night. Such is the embrace of Immensity.
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Yes, I remember seeing a starry night before I moved to a light-drenched place. I miss the stars. That would be the same feeling.
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Amazing writing. I love how you bring out the “loudness” of nature, constantly talking!! 🙂 I want to buy your book, with all your writings and pictures!
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You fabulous friend, I wish I had one to offer. Maybe one day…
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This makes perfect sense. The world is so much larger than our own reflection. Our own reflection, however we view it, is small in the whole circle of everything. Beautiful thought! Thank you!
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My pleasure. I find nature so calming and beautiful. Thanks for the visit.
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Thank you for all your visits this morning. I fear I shall be behind on visits for a while. Just when you think you’ll catch up another holiday embraces the air and time is lost as if we were all fairies lost in the wonderful moment of rainbows.
I’ve been cleaning out the stuff collecting by the fallen log in the creek almost daily. Without light there is little reflection and I can see the bottom…still not something I’d want to fall into, especially since it is freezing now.
Cheers and good wishes for the remainder of the year and the new one just around the corner.
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Hugs, Jules, and hope your holidays are magical. Be well. Brenda
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A magical moment indeed!! 😉
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Thanks!
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This is so beautiful!! And so true for many of us!!! I love seeing the whole world reflected back…way more than seeing myself:-)
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I like to see the big picture rather than focus solely on me, but it’s easy to lose sight of, isn’t it? Hugs, Brenda
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I know exactly what you mean my friend!!!!!! ❤❤❤
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Simply Beautiful Brenda as is the reflection we feel as well as see in your thoughts…
Thank you for just being you…
Take Care…You Matter…
)0(
maryrose
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Thank you for your wonderful, soul-nourishing comment. They always make me feel warm and happy. Blessings, Friend of Wolves, Brenda
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This one draws me back in…it has such a grace-flowing quality about it….
such quiet beauty within your Brenda….
it makes me hear Dolly Parton’s song “Coat of Many Colors ” for some reason…
Take Care…You Matter…
)0(
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Thank you Maryrose, I love seeing you visit and reading your comments. You have a real way of spreading beauty wherever you go. Blessings, Brenda
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I nominated you for an award. Thank you for all your wonderful posts. http://sayanything13.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/versatile-who-me/
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Well, thanks! I’ll come by soon and take a look. Cheers, Brenda
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Beautiful scene
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Thank you!
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Excellent!
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Thank you!
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Stunning image and beautiful narrative alongside. Thank you.
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Thanks! Did you notice the ice along the bank? It was a very cold day! Cheers, Brenda
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Brenda, this is a beautiful post, I believe I need to take a moment to stand on your bridge, and see what you saw. Thank you, take care, Bill
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Anytime. My bridge was on public land. 🙂
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🙂
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🙂 Smiles, friend.
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Beautiful. Your haibun combines the mystical reflections on nature of classic haibun with an insightful commentary on contemporary life. I read your haibun just as I was thinking the current obsession with haiku and haibun on the internet has nothing to do with the modern world and is just escapism. Your haibun made me think again. I see now that the form is still relevant.
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To me, poetry is always relevant. Even escapism is important, like chocolate, anything that helps us cope is important, ineffably so. Our society is held together with these insubstantial things, woven between us. Sorry to get philosophical — some people are cranky first thing in the morning, I’m philosophical. 🙂
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A very wise observation. I just spent time staring at the horizon over a calm blue green sea – escapism yes but absolutely necessary in this wild ride of December 2013.
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Absolutely an important thing to do. I don’t know if it is escapism. Something that helps your soul surely has a better name than that. Meditation maybe. Thoreau didn’t belittle a search for nature. Losing yourself and finding a better you is something bigger than just sitting and watching TV and shutting off from your own problems for half an hour. Even if it is escapism, I’m still for it. 🙂
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Totally. I couldn’t cope with life if I didn’t meditate every day and take out in nature as much as possible. 🙂
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Just so. My life is so much richer and calmer walking every morning.
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You are a shining wonderful light!
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Juan, you are a treasure! I hope you look up often, not just down into the hidden places. 🙂 Warmly, Brenda
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I sometimes think that if we look around at all that surrounds us, we will see beauty and this beauty in someways is an extension of who we are. If our eyes can see the beauty elsewhere, then they have the ability to see the true beauty in a mirror.
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Seeing and appreciating beauty does give you a radiance, like a bride, that does enhance your own beauty, I think. Inner happiness is more important than outer, and makes all the lines of the face more appealing.
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oh so wonderful and what a magnificent way to express this moment. we all need to remember to be just who we are rather than a reflection of someone else’s concept of us )
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Exactly, we all need to follow our own inner voices, and to try not to let them be critical always. I find this embracing nature, so simple and yet so rewarding.
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Beautiful!
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Thanks!
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You’ve discovered a beautiful place to be, Brenda.
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Thanks, Audrey, it is good to get out of your own head now and then. 🙂
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So lovely, Brenda. And true. I have to say, a beautiful reflection……on the nature of all……part of the oneness.x
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Thank you. Sometimes all you need is a walk in the woods. 🙂
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