Oxford Trip

Today I worked in the City of Oxford before heading to my course in the evening. We talked about how things in our day can be either nourishing or depleting and the things that make them different. It was quite an eye opener for me because I realised that the way I approach things, and how ‘present’ I am for them can be the different between whether they are nourishing or depleting. When under pressures of time it is so easy to be on autopilot but if you actually remember to be present then it can transform the experience.

They also read a poem called The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver and I thought I would share it with you. It is very powerful.

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?
—Mary Oliver

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?