Tag Archives: Mary Oliver

What I Have Learned So Far

Posted on May 1, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I wonder if I do enough. Is there more that I can do? Certainly, I discover the seed Mary Oliver referred to in quiet moments of meditation. What can I do so it grows and I move beyond indolence? Yesterday, a former student visited. He is a success story in my career, a young man who was disengaging from school in late elementary. His parents supported our efforts and the result was a high school graduate, a married man with two children, and he is headed to Africa for work.

He reminded me through his visit that I had done more than talk the good story. We sowed the seed and it flourished.

Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so.

All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of — indolence, or action.

Be ignited, or be gone.

17 Comments

Posted in Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, education, eloquent questions, leadership, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, poetry, teacher as transformer, What I Have Learned So Far. Bookmark the permalink.

Why I Wake Early

Posted on March 6, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Mary Oliver wrote this poem about being an early riser and what it can mean. I used to fight the alarm clock, turn over several times, and hit the snooze button. With age, I realized that 5:00 or 5:30 AM was the time my body wanted my mind to join it and begin the day. I eat breakfast quietly, go for a cup of tea, and reflect. I do all of this in solitude. Even the busiest Starbucks at 6:00 AM, is quiet. I find many of the things that make the day worth facing in that quiet and solitude. I find creative space there.

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who made the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety –

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light –

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

60 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, poetry, Starbucks, teacher as transformer, Why I Wake Early. Bookmark the permalink.

Messenger

Posted on January 29, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Today, I scooped an article entitled “Why Questions Are More Important Than Answers.” I added a short piece: “Questions keep us moving. Answers end conversations and their messages.”

Being present and mindful exposes the extraordinary on life’s canvas. I ask only to be astonished with eloquent questions which I am unable to answer, because the next question reveals itself playfully in front of me; again to go unanswered.

I love Mary Oliver‘s poetry and this poem resonated today.

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

11 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged conversational journey, eloquent questions, Mary Oliver, Messenger, Mindful Practice, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Foolishness? No, It’s Not

Posted on December 31, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I am a little rushed, but found some time to sit and work with the blog. I was unable to spend the time answering all the comments, but hope to find some time late after we do a bit more visiting. As well, I apologize for not attending to the awards that we so generously bestowed on me. I will attend to them when we get home after the New Year.

I think, as I enter 2013, there will be considerable change upcoming for me professionally. I look forward to some times of transition and building relationships like I have over the past few months with this blog. Mary Oliver always seems to find the words I seek as I look ahead.

Sometimes I spend all my day trying to count the leaves on a single tree. To do this I have to climb branch by branch and write down the numbers in a little book. So I suppose, from this point of view, it’s reasonable that my friends say: what foolishness! [He’s] got [his] heads in the clouds again.

But it’s not. Of course I have to give up, but by then I’m half crazy with the wonder of it–the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth-praise.

Take care friends, ring in the New Year, and be safe my friends.

26 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Writing and tagged blogging, community, creativity, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Retreat

Posted on September 14, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Kathy and I are attending a retreat this weekend, so I am off-line for the weekend. I will leave you with Mindful by Mary Oliver. This poem reminds me to keep all my senses open and welcome that which is around me into my heart and mind.

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?

Kathy took this picture of the frost on the Ponderosa Pine which sits in front of our house.

15 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry and tagged Mary Oliver, mindful by mary oliver, Mindful Practice, nature, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

In My Haste to Post I Forgot the Title

Posted on July 15, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

It was an interesting day. In the midst of it, Parker Palmer posted a poem by Wendell Berry on Facebook. It is a special day when Parker posts a poem by Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, or himself. The poem was How to Be a Poet (to remind myself). Wendell Berry is low tech and uses a typewriter to craft his words. Parker pointed to an aspect of the poem’s message: “Shun electric wire/Communicate slowly/Live a three-dimensional life.”The slow of life is worth something. It lets us be the person we are most fully.

Later, I began to think about two songs by two artists I enjoy and have seen multiple times live. Guy Clark sings The Carpenter and John Wort Hannam sings With the Grain. Both songs are rich with the metaphors of living a three-dimensional life. It is no coincidence the topic is that of a carpenter in both cases. It is about true to one’s self and living a life with value.

Sabbath

Silence, solitude, sacred

A mountain’s strength

The sky’s expanse

A lake mirrors

Words of wisdom

Spoken so softly.

Disconnect to reconnect

Listen that silent sacred space

The inner teacher beckons

Be present

Wisdom revealed

Let it heal, repair

A single thread at a time

The web of life so fragile.

Questions emerge

Hold gently

Live their mystery

They answer only when ready

Until then they lie dormant

Ready when ready

Embrace life as it is.

I salute you and take my leave for a few hours. Have a wonderful 16th of July.

3 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Synchronicity, Uncategorized and tagged Guy Clark, John Wort Hannam, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, Parker Palmer, poetry, teacher as transformer, Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

There Are a Lot of Mockingbirds in This Book by Mary Oliver

Posted on July 9, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Sabbath was good. I feel rejuvenated and more at rest plus I got a lot done. Sat quietly twice during the day, went to church, and shared pizza with friends.

I read. I randomly chose a poem from Evidence by Mary Oliver called There Are Lot of Mockingbirds in This Book and read when I first got up. The last three stanzas really stood out. We plan and over plan and it is those unexpected things that reveal themselves. We just have to wait. I also read Derek Boks, Parker Palmer, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Wayne Muller, a bit of an eclectic mix.

The quiet gave me time to digest food and food for thought. I disconnected to reconnect.

this is isn’t nature

where the sweetest things, being hidden in leaves

and thorn-thick bushes

reveal themselves rarely–

this is a book

of the heart’s rapture,

of hearing and praising

and never forgetting

so that the world

is what the world is

in a long lifetime:

singer after singer

bursts from the thorn bush,

now, and again, and again,

their songs in the mind forever.

Have a great 10th of July. Smile at someone secretly.

I Want to Write Something So Simply by Mary Oliver

Posted on July 2, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Some days, when I sit to write, I find it hard to start and this poem by Mary Oliver came to me this morning.

I want to write something

so simply

about love

or about pain

that even

as you are reading

you feel it

and as you read

you keep feeling it

and though it be my story

it will be common,

though it be singular

it will be known to you

so that by the end

you will think–

no, you will realize–

that it was all the while

yourself arranging the words,

that it was all the time

words that you yourself,

out of your own heart

had been saying.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts through comments and making my words more than just my words.

A Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Posted on April 16, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

One of my favourite poets is Mary Oliver. Here is one of her poems called A Summer Day. After a weekend of not great weather, it was a timely poem to receive, read, and reflect upon. Mary Oliver, through her poetry, poses such great questions and asks us to take time to enjoy our life. It is the only life we have. Live it well.