Tuesday's Poem: Mindful by Mary Oliver

Mindful

Every day
I see or I hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light,
It is 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

These pictures were taken with my older sister this past November. We were trying to get that great, "effortless California coastline" shot and the waves were crashing in more quickly than we anticipated. We did not realize that my husband was capturing shots all along the way of us dodging waves. These animated goofy pictures turned out to be my favorites. Like the poem says, these are the moments that instruct us "over and over in joy".