More than a rhyme



Yesterday, I mentioned the power of words. I mention it again today, but in a much different way. There are times in life when the written word has changed our lives. Not all of us maybe, but certainly, quite a few.

It could have been a story, a quote, an entire novel, a text book, or even a poem. A poem.

I don’t spend a lot of time reading poetry, albeit, I have truly appreciated it on many occasions. This past week, an incredible poet of our very time, passed away. Her name was Mary Oliver. She lived a quiet life, but she had a large following. A dog-lover, which endears her to her to me even more. When she would give readings, people would come out in rock-star proportions. She was loved by many for her words. And. She died on January 17th, at the age of 83.

In this big world of ours, there are so many people who give incredible gifts to the rest of us. They take their own special talent, and truly share it on every occasion they can. These are our hero’s in the world. The teachers, writers, bakers, nurses, fire fighters, parents, brick layers, and on. It doesn’t matter what the gift is. But they gladly give it. To the rest of us. To our good benefit.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

—Mary Oliver

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Keep some room in your heart for the Unimaginable. —Mary Oliver

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To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. —Mary Oliver

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Listen – are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? —Mary Oliver

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