Happy Summer Solstice…it won’t be official where I live until it is 5:43 p.m. but I was greeted this morning by the most beautiful sunshine and warmth. It feels like summer has been with us off and on all month. My daughter and I went for a walk and although the temperature was in the low twenties when we started out, we could feel the heat of the day building as we walked. I love summer. Below is a poem I also love. It is one (amongst many) of my favourite poems by Mary Oliver. Enjoy it and enjoy this official shift into a new season.
P.S. Check back soon for a brand new post too on yoga and the power of ritual.
The Summer’s 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?
Summer Solstice
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