September 5, 2020

Summer wanes, kindness wins

Jamie and I just returned from our evening walk through the neighborhood, signs of fall becoming more obvious, the sunset glowing red due to the smoke from California. Probably, most of us are dreading the winter in shutdown mode. I am, but trying to turn my mind to a more optimistic future when we can celebrate together. Please stay safe, enjoy the rest of the summer, and I remember that performing acts of kindness are good for your health and well being.

I am going to play tunes with Jamie tonight and send you off with this poem from Mary Oliver, to remind us that we are alive.

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

Wash your hands, cover your nose, keep safe six, and be alive

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200903095622.htm

And finally, my caveat is that this is my experience and my opinions, which are subject to change as more information is available, and not related to the organization I work for. Thanks for reading.