Let us all be ASTONISHED, friends!
“Messenger” (sort of) by Mary Oliver
My work is loving the world.
Here the ferns, there the downy—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the turtle deep in the speckled sand; there the service berries.
Here the leaves lining my pathway into the day.
Is my helmet old? Are my shoes worn?
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly pedaling silently and learning to be
astonished.
The junco, the oak, and the squirrel.
The deer in the fields, and the fields.
Which are mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes, legs to pedal, arms to steer, and
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the nuthatch, to the sleepy, stunning snapper,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.