“Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in…

And someone’s face, whom you love, will be as a star
Both intimate and ultimate,
And you will be heart-shaken and respectful.
And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved whisper:

‘Oh let me, for a while longer, enter the two
Beautiful bodies of your lungs…’

Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for your eyes.

It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of a single heart.
It’s praising.
It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.

You have a life – just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe
Still another…

We do one thing or another; we stay the same or we change.
Congratulations if you have changed.

Let me ask you this.
Do you also think that beauty exists for some fabulous reason?

And if you have not been enchanted by this adventure—your life—
what would do for you?

Since then I have gone out from my confinements, though with difficulty

I mean the ones that are thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment somehow or another).

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world” ― Mary Oliver

My darlings, perhaps one of my most favorite poems from author, Mary Oliver – and, capturing so eloquently our place in this life.

Whether it’s the sweetness of a hummingbird pausing just a moment longer, or the thrilling contrast of sunflowers against the far off black oaks…her imagery has the power to captivate, and steal even the most hardened heart away.

[blockquote]And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved whisper…”[/blockquote]

Indeed, to escape the limits of these self-imposed confinements – to disentangle ourselves from the threadings of these ‘hooks’ – is, to finally be at one with this world.

To cast away that which is thought to rule our heart, in place of an open-minded wonderment.

When we are able to observe deeply in this way – our connection to this world becomes unbreakable.

My darlings, this is the path to our spiritual awakening; and this…is the true heart of the bodhisattva warrior.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world”