You can only grow wise

Mindful by Mary Oliver

Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.

It was what I was born for – to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation.

Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant – but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these –

the untrimmable light of the world, the ocean’s shine, the prayers that are made out of grass?

You grow wise by your own seeing and understanding, by lifting up the dirt from under the flower to see the roots. No one can really spell it out for you, can they? Sometimes, within ourselves we hold beliefs that are not to our benefit. For instance, a belief can be that one isn't smart enough, thin enough, pretty enough, strong enough, rich enough....enough! However, as Mary Oliver so keenly has learned it's the teachings within the ordinary that give us the extraordinary...it's the prayer's that are made of grass.

Oftentimes, we believe that if we reach far outside ourselves, far, very far, that the answers come. They come in materialism, cars and diamonds, and grand trips afar, or they come through those who give us positive feedback, the shining star on our foreheads. For some, it comes as a bonus, more money in the bank. For many others, it comes through watching the world of media, magazines, tv shows to tell us how to look, think and what to buy.

For the non-believer in such things, the simple remains the most profound. Today, for instance,while running in the woods, I heard the familiar call of Raven, the wise messenger telling me about people ahead, later I heard Pilated woodpecker cawing like an old woman bouncing from tree to tree, and finally the beautiful Great Horned Owl beckoned me at mid-day, a call that says, I am with you.

How can you help grow wise with such teachings as these?

On this holiday, live simply, feel profoundly and love deeply

Blessings on your journey, Kathy