An Invitation to Pause Midsummer

Jul 11

As I ease (stumble? somersault? drag myself?) back into a routine after being in my dreamland home-state, I wanted to pause. And, invite you to pause, too. Hear the words of poet Mary Oliver calling us to enter into the sanctuary of this world:

Every day

     I see or hear
          something
               that more or less

kills me
     with delight,
          that leaves me
               like a needle

in the haystack
     of light.
          It was what I was born for --
               to look, to listen,

to lose myself
     inside this soft world --
          to instruct myself
               over and over

in joy,
     and acclamation.
          Nor am I talking
               about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
     the very extravagant --
          but of the ordinary,
               the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
     Oh, good scholar,
          I say to myself,
               how can you help

but grow wise
     with such teachings
          as these --
               the untrimmable light

of the world,
     the ocean's shine,
          the prayers that are made
               out of grass?