In her wonderful poem, ”The Summer Day,” the poet Mary Oliver walks in nature and observes all its beauty, all the wonderful living things, like the grasshopper. And while she is well aware of how wonderful life is, she is also acutely aware of how short a time all living creatures have on this earth. She asks, ”Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?” And, then, a more important question:
”Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
This question is worth thinking about: What are some of the things you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? What are your hopes and dreams? Please share with us.
Here is Ms. Oliver’s 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?

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