Summer Day

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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?

Mary's poem reminds me to be conscious of my everyday choices. Will the things I do, the dishes, and the laundry, the meals I prepare today. All of this, that is gone tomorrow... Will that add to or take away from my life?

How do we balance our lives? Corporate America says, work harder, stay longer and strive for success. Will that matter at the end of the day?

How do we balance our lives? How do we give our children a good childhood? I believe we can clear the clutter and find what really matters if we stop every once in a while, to look at the grasshoppers.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6: 19-21

Enjoy the last of our summer days!