Monday's Mary Oliver- The Singular and Cheerful Life

I missed another Monday! But I had a good reason as we were on our family vacation, all nine of us :). I am putting up this particular poem today, because I came home to roadside and field full of beautiful flowers/weeds. I ambled about happily snatching pictures of humble plants and just being thankful, so thankful to be back to my cozy little nest. So, have this poem for now, and later I will regale you with the natural wonders of our dirt roads and fence rows...



The Singular and Cheerful Life
  by Mary Oliver (from Evidence) 

The singular and cheerful life

of any flower

in anyone's garden

or any still unowned field--

if there are any--

catches me

by the heart,

by its color

by its obedience

to the holiest of laws:

be alive

until you are not.

Ragweed,

pale violet bull thistle,

morning glories curling

through the field corn;

those princes of everything green--

the grasses

of which there are truly

an uncountable company,

each on its singular stem

striving

to rise and ripen.

What, in the earth world,

is there not to be amazed by

and to be steadied by

and to cherish?

Oh, my dear heart,

my own dear heart,

full of hesitations,

questions, choice of directions,

look at the world.

Behold the morning glory,

the meanest flower, the ragweed, the thistle.

 Look at the grass.