MINDFUL

MINDFUL

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?

~ Mary Oliver