Dear friends,
I recently held a meditation session here in Dublin,
Where we tried to see the world through the poetic eyes of the wonderful Mary Oliver,
Whom our world sadly lost in 2019.
In this present meditation we will try to open our eyes in the way Mary did,
So that the ordinary will appear as it truly is when looked at aright,
A miracle in which we live and move and have our being.
So let us begin by making sure we are sitting comfortably.
This is not meant to be an ordeal.
So let's close our eyes,
Feet on the floor to ground ourselves,
Taking a few deep breaths to help come into the now,
Dropping the shoulders to release any tension and just relax.
Simply relax.
We want to bring ourselves into the present moment,
Bringing ourselves to an awareness that this is a never to be repeated point in time,
Which is a gift from the universe to us just now,
Conscious that we are living in this wonderful present moment and what a gift that is.
What we wish to do in order to begin is to see if we can bring body and mind into alignment in this marvelous space which we call the now.
So two steps.
First let us create in our mind an imaginary box marked yesterday.
For these few moments we leave the concerns of the past in that box.
Next we create in our mind an imaginary envelope labelled tomorrow and for now we place the concerns of the future in that envelope.
We take a few deep breaths and allow ourselves to simply be.
As we breathe in we notice that we are breathing in and as we breathe out we pay attention to the fact that we are breathing out.
It is said that for the quiet promptings of the soul to be heard we need to be still and to listen.
So we will allow ourselves one minute of stillness before we begin our reflections on new morning,
New day,
New world,
New me.
Sixty seconds of stillness.
Welcome back.
Mary Oliver was an American poet born in Ohio in 1935.
She died in 2019 at the age of 84.
Much of Mary's poetry arises out of her love of nature but her walks in the woods are more than just mindless ramblings.
Following her example it is important to really look at the world we live in and really pay attention.
This helps us to try to understand where we fit in in the scheme of things.
Nature is central to Mary Oliver's idea of God and she refers to the idea of God in many of her poems.
She sees the divine in nature's beauty.
Although her faith doesn't neatly slip into any one religious box she always considers herself to be a deeply spiritual person.
Mary is comfortable about not having all the answers.
Something that we should try to be relaxed about as well.
So an exercise to begin.
Let us recall a time when we walked in the forest or strolled by the sea.
It might have been simply the botanic gardens or some nearby strand.
Bring ourselves back to that day.
Calling to mind the colours,
The weather,
Maybe the sunshine,
Maybe birds chirping,
Perhaps the relaxing sound of the waves.
Bring to mind the sights and smells of the world around us on that remembered day.
Let's pause for one minute to allow for this reminiscence.
Let's pause for one minute to allow for this reminiscence.
Let's pause for one minute to allow for this reminiscence.
Welcome back again.
Mary Oliver brings times like these to mind in her poem The Summer Day.
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?
The Summer Day by Mary Oliver This poem asks the question which has fascinated the human race from the dawn of human life.
Who made the world?
Where did this all come from?
And her famous question to each of us.
Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Maybe we should stop for another minute to consider one of these questions.
Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Welcome back.
These summer thoughts and the questions they raise help us as we approach each new day.
Each new morning is a field of possibility,
Ready and just waiting for planting by us.
If we plant good seeds we can expect something useful to spring forth.
Bad seeds cannot be expected to produce good fruit.
And of course if we plant nothing at all then nothing at all is what we can expect at harvest time.
Which brings us to another thought from Mary Oliver about how each of us can help in the building of our corner of this wonderful universe.
She says,
On a summer morning I sat down on a hillside to think about God,
A worthy pastime.
Near me I saw a single cricket.
It was moving the grains of the hillside this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
How humble its effort.
Let us hope it will always be like this,
Each of us going on in our inexplicable ways,
Building the universe.
I encourage listeners to my meditations to examine this wonderful world of ours as explored through the thoughtful observations of Mary Oliver.
Her books and her audiobooks will repay any time and attention you devote to them.
They'll help you see the world afresh.
They will encourage you every morning to begin again.
And so for our last poem.
Mary had a fascination with everything she found in the world around her.
She saw the world and all that is in it as an endless source of wonder and fascination.
Her curiosity even overcame the fear of death that each of us feels from time to time.
The poem When Death Comes When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn.
When death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me and snaps the purse shut.
When death comes like the measle pox.
When death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades.
I wanted to step through the door full of curiosity,
Wondering what is it going to be like that cottage of darkness.
And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood.
And I look upon time as no more than an idea.
And I consider eternity as another possibility.
And I think of each life as a flower,
As common as a field daisy,
And as singular.
And each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
Tending as all music does toward silence.
And each body a line of courage and something precious to the earth.
When it's over I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom taking the world into my arms.
When it's over I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Words of Mary Oliver And may it be so with us.
When it's over we don't want to be wracked with doubt as to whether we have made anything of our lives.
Worried about the seeds we have failed to tend or even to plant.
We don't want to feel frightened as we face into the unknown.
As Mary so eloquently put it,
We don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
But what if we have been careless up to this point?
We are here today and therefore there is reason for hope and not despair.
The future lies ahead and the ship of our life can be turned around in the direction of light and goodness by the simple morning practice of stopping for some minutes to redirect our course.
Every day,
Every new morning may each of us redirect ourselves and encourage one another towards the light.
Each new morning we see a new day,
A new world of possibility opening for a new you and a new me.
Namaste.
