The Graze V.161: Rest

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver

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?

(From New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992)

May you discover ways to be “idle and blessed” these summer days.

🌱 Lisa+

There is no gathering planned at Mission Farm this Sunday, June 4

Feel free to join St. James in Woodstock at 8am or 10am

See you next week!

Our Sunday gatherings are built around interconnection and community. We welcome your participation as a reader or greeter or bell ringer or simply your presence with us.