One Wild & Precious Life
beauty in the changing seasons
Yesterday, I ran through these dying flowers, contemplating an invitation by Selah Center’s retreat which included Mary Oliver’s The Summer Day poem.
You can listen to the poem here:
The last lines are:
“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 Oliver
I knew the ending, but not the line preceding. End of spring, beginning of summer, witnessing the seasons around me, dying flowers, beautiful even in their dying, providing life and nourishment to other creatures.
I rounded a corner and stumbled across one lonely amazing blooming flower: Mariposa Lily.
Striking resonance: Our one wild and precious life.
Journal Prompts:
What stirs in you as you consider the invitation to live your one wild and precious life?
In what way could you live more wholly, not necessarily more busily?
Consider the connection between soil and soul. How the seeds need to fall to the ground, to go under, in order to grow again.
How might the dying flowers encourage your releasing, letting go of what needs to die?
What does your soul need to be nourished?
Much more could be said, and maybe I’ll write more someday, but too little time these days, as summer also means school ending, seasons changing.
Still the invitation persists, to notice beauty and live wholly and fully present, and welcome growth and Presence in the challenges.
Deep nourishment to you in the changing seasons,
Bethany Dearborn Hiser
I am loving this reflection and prompt, thank you!
In what way can we live more wholly vs more busily ... this reminds me of what Elkhart Tolle says about people wondering where they should be and what shall they do, when in fact they could be more concerned with how to be.