July 28 Reflection: Pay Attention
Dear Holy Covenant Community,
The heat of summer is indeed upon us! Some have accused me of bringing the humidity with me from Georgia; I hope I’m not to blame. In fact, I find myself longing for dry and cool Chicago summer days. But even as we wipe the sweat from our brows and complain about the sun, there is a gift buried in the heat. For being so hot, so sticky, reminds us to slow down. What a gift it is to stop and pay attention. On this hot and sticky day, receive the poem below as a reminder to ponder the One who creates and calls us to be attentive:
The Summer Day by Mary Oliver
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 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?
As we live into the deep days of summer, may this poem wash over us as a prayer for all creation. May we listen to the God who calls us to pay attention to our wild and precious lives. What do you hear?
See you Sunday, and think about who you can bring with you.
Peace and Grace,
Kate
