life is too short

Sister K and I were talking about funerals today. She went to one last week and said she was inspired. It makes her want to use her 'one wild and precious life' to it's potential and think of ways she can do that. Isn't that something? Thanks for that Sista K.

Death has been on my mind these past months. I used to be really scared of it. I know we all are in some way. I think that fear goes back to being a child and afraid of my parents dying. I also saw Jaws and monster movies and one about a wax museum and people getting 'waxed' alive....oh my.....so those things certainly don't help ;). My imagination is too grand for scary things - haunted houses, scary movies - I just try and stay away. To this very day.

But back to Death. We all go there some day. I used to feel such pressure to live life - anxious that I was wasting time spinning my wheels....not sure where I was traveling to. Had some tough times on that road. I had lovelies reminding me that life is a journey not a destination. It is in this 'livingness' (through things) that we become more of who we truly are. I seem to be at a place where I am 'getting' that more and more. Making peace with myself. Spinning my wheels less. Age has a way of doing that to you :).

When I was intensely searching for 'answers', this poem - or part of it - came across my path. At that time it just added to the pressure I was feeling - it's question gave me eye twitches because I just did not 'know' what to do with my wild and precious life! So, the poem got shuffled into my things. Now here it is again - it was in last Saturdays Globe and Mail. It was embedded in an article about Poetry at work. Here it is. Something to ponder. What will you take from it?

(from the article: "Mary Oliver was an American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize. In the poem, she has dropped to her knees to examine a grasshopper closely:"

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?

One day may we all be able to find the answer to this question - the time may not be right now - have courage, journey bravely on dear lovies.