Start again today.

Mary Oliver says:

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 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, 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?

================================

On the morning after a seemingly wasted day, this poem reverberates in my heart. Once again, I’ve fallen short, failed to progress toward my life goals, even gone backward.

I’m old enough to know my good days are limited now. They always were, but my bad knee and grey temples make it real.

What will I do with my wild and precious life? What have I done? My answer is well enough in family, a good start in my books, and and years of work with clients who’ve said the work made a difference–even a transformation. So far, so good, though never enough, never impeccable.

In addressing those who are most in pain, who suffer from war, abject poverty, life-threatening illness, or the daily threat of violence, I’ve failed badly. In assisting the least of these, I’ve done so very little.

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer once. Later, traveling in India, I gave rice to the poor. At home, I worked with homeless, addicted youth. Sometimes, I’ve been privileged to assist with dying and death. Good intentions, followed by inconsistent action. So little, so unsustained, so lacking in commitment to turn around some corner of the planet.

If I died tomorrow, anyone who spoke of me truly would say, “She had a big heart, but she never buckled down and took on responsibility to make change happen for a group with no voice or power.”

May I be guided to that group or project. Perhaps you, dear visitor, know of someone or some place in need. Will you let me know?

And what about you? When you and I have both merged with the Light, what will be said of how brightly we lit up the darkness?

==============================

Please respond, dear visitor. You may post a response here, or email your blog post, question, or comment to drvlee1234@aol.com.