Dag and Mary

When we come to a point of rest in our own being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest, and then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud becomes a revelation, and each person we meet a cosmos whose riches we can only glimpse.
— Dag Hammarskjöld quoted in Senses Wide Open by Johanna Putnoi

from spirituality and practice website


and another from Mary Oliver
By Mary Oliver

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for—
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world—
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant—
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these—
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?


I think of these as we bring fresh eyes to flowers we have never seen before, trees we do not know how to name, constellations that are strange to us, ocean bays, volcanic hills, birds of another feather, all new gifts of curiosity and....yes. if only to glean the wisdom and be the prayer...the rest..the glimpse...perhaps..simpley to allow the delight