Hi Friends. I have been contemplative lately and when I get that way, at times, I like to read poetry. In the past year or so I have discovered both Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry and I just love so much of their poetry. I thought I’d share one of my Oliver favorites with you all. I have this saved on my phone for times like these because it reminds me that I’m not the only one who believes not only that “people do what they want” but that this whole world is one big question mark handed back to us that says: “What is it that you want?” So much so that Jesus asks it of us all the time in the gospels. I think it is THE question of life because it gets at the desires of our hearts. More on that some time. For now, I’ll let Miss Oliver encourage us:
Morning Poem
by: Mary Oliver
Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches —
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands
of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails
for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it
the thorn
that is heavier than lead —
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging —
there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted —
each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,
whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.
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Courtney Beck Writes 
Lovely
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my favorite 🙂
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“(our) nature to be happy.” indeed!
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