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Summer invites us to slow down, take a deep breath, and notice the beauty around us. Whether it is a walk outside, time spent with family and friends, or simply enjoying a quiet moment in the sunshine, these long summer days offer us opportunities to pause and give thanks for the gift of creation and the gift of one another.
Mary Oliver's The Summer Day is a beautiful reminder to pay attention to the world around us and to consider how we are spending the precious days we have been given. May this summer be a season of rest, wonder, gratitude, and joy.
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?
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