Wild & Precious

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


Mary Oliver says it better than I could. "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Let your rapt attention to the world be a prayer, she seems to be saying. Life is dear and by the way, what are your plans? It is precious advice. Life is short and we move so fast. As I age I realize how important it is to pay attention to what I love. For me, being in nature and giving art its due in my life top the list. We all have a love or loves that bring us home and offer us the opportunity to open up and find our own prayer.

Let your wild and precious life be… just that!

- Storm Maxwell

Photo Credit: Jayesh Nair