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?
— From New and Selected Poems, 1992
This Mary Oliver poem is a favorite of mine, and I think of it often, because I am haunted not just by its beauty but by its last sentence - a most touching question for her readers to ponder.
I
have used “The Summer Day” within a prayer group for contemplatives, hoping that not only will its imagery prepare our hearts
to go into silence, but that its final line will cause us to ask that all-important question of our purpose. Not an easy question and not an easy answer. But a good one to ask and then to sit with in silence to wait for an answer, a stirring, a feeling that could point us toward fulfillment in this life... and in the next.
God
has given us this one irreplaceable life, whether it is full of happiness or full
of sorrow or whether it falls somewhere in between. Regardless, to me, it
is a magnificent life, because we were created by an extravagant God. The Creator who made the grasshopper with all
its simplicity and complexity, made countless
gifts of wonder for us to enjoy and be thankful for. And our simple and heartfelt gratitude can be prayer enough. Oliver acknowledges that her prayer cannot always be easily
defined – but she knows it when she sees it, when she does it… when she simply
lives it. And God hears and sees and is, I believe, pleased.
During these long days of summer,
when the heat starts to get to us, take moments throughout the day to enjoy
what this season brings specifically to you. And like Mary
Oliver, “be idle and blessed.” Know that
all the abundance of summer (yes, even its abundant heat) was made by our
loving Creator for you to enjoy and to share.
