To Look To Listen

 

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 ~