Post-Post week 7--Reflection on "Praying"

Post-Post week 7--

Choose some lines of poetry from any of the poems we've read so far in this class and write a spiritual, ecological meditation or reflection on them.

Praying

by Mary Oliver

It doesn't have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just

pay attention, then patch

few words together and don't try

to make them elaborate, this isn't

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.

I want to do this--pay attention. I don't want to miss anything. Although, I think, it is somehow easy to see the big stuff--spectacular sunrises or sunsets, magnificent trees, amazing flowers. But maybe not. Georgia O'Keeffe painted a whole series of oversized flowers explaining, "I paint the flowers big so people will notice." (Part of her point was people weren't noticing, were they?) Two inexpensive framed prints of her flowers hang in our house, and I enjoy them immensely. It seems to me there's a good chance God likes Georgia's pictures, too. After all he was the first one involved--he imagined the scenes, he created them, and he blessed her with a gift to catch his vision. So dramatic bigness has a place, but it isn't everything. In fact, noticing the simple things may be what's most important because it connects me to God at work in the present moment, in the ordinary everydayness of my life. It's a valuable practice to see God in the often overlooked things like "weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones," or as I remember it loaves and fishes, an empty net, a full jar of water, and my favorite--the still small voice. Thankfully, there is no contest here, and, if there are winners, it's because of surrendering not striving. Daily I'm learning to slow down, pay attention, and be thankful for his presence and action in my life. This continues to be my prayer: that I may be open to His mercy and grace and to "silence in which another voice may speak."