Mindful

This is how I want to live. Many other bloggers I regularly read are talking about resolutions and intentions and goals. I have them, too -- many of them, some of which I've even written down. But thematically speaking, I want to be mindful, I want to be intentional, I want to be balanced, I want to be obedient to the various callings to which I've committed.

Mindful
by Mary Oliver



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?