The Pastoral Artist
  • Home
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Contact

BLOG

Thought of July

7/31/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureCindy's flowers
The month of July is drawing to a close.  It is a time where Cindy is very much on my mind.  On her birthday, I hiked through Blandford Nature Center with a friend.  Cindy and I enjoyed nature walks and it was a good way to remember her on her special day.  The center has changed since we were last there together.  I wish she could see it.

A week later I was kayaking again, introducing a friend to Wabasis Lake - a large local lake that has fun places to explore hidden among the reeds.  Cindy and I discovered kayaking together and we really enjoyed it through the years.  I hadn’t been on the water for two years - she had become too weak to paddle and I just wanted to stay available to her.  Last summer, it felt disloyal to take my boat out when she could barely walk.  So my kayak hung on the garage wall until last week.

The flowers Cindy had given me for my garden bloom in July.  They are a beautiful reminder of our friendship.

This has not been a great year and in some ways I’m glad she didn’t live to see the pandemic, the brutality, the national strife…but I will always miss her and July will always bring her to mind.

Mary Oliver was one of her favorite poets.  I’ll leave you with this poem that she read at a friend’s funeral a few months before her own.


The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
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?

—Mary Oliver

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Donna Kemper

    Donna Kemper put aside her art career to care for a mother she hadn't seen in over a decade.  For seven years she followed her mother's journey into dementia, caring for her and putting forgiveness into action.

    Categories

    All
    Abandonment
    Adult Care Facilities
    Advocacy
    Alzheimers
    Alzheimers Research
    Art
    August
    Automobiles
    Ballet
    Beauty
    Birds
    Birthdays
    Book
    Books
    Burnout
    Camping
    Cancer
    Care Giving
    Cat
    Colonoscopy
    Community
    Compassion Fatigue
    Computer Issues
    Creativity
    Daughters
    Death
    Dementia
    Difficult Parent
    Discovery
    Documentary
    Dreaming
    Elder Care
    Experimentation
    Faith
    Family
    Father
    Father In Law
    Father-in-law
    Fatherless Daughters
    Fear
    Forgiveness
    Friendship
    Frustration
    Gardening
    Genealogy
    God
    Gold Leafing
    Good Man
    Gourd Art
    Grandmothers
    Gratitude
    Grief
    Growth
    Health
    Hero
    Hope
    Human Trafficking
    Humor
    Husband
    Justice
    Kayaking
    Kindness
    Life Adjustments
    Listening
    Loneliness
    Loss
    Lost And Found
    Love
    Love In Action
    Mother In Law
    Mother-in-law
    Mothers
    Moving Forward
    Music
    Neglect
    Offering Help
    Paintings
    Patience
    Poetry
    Prayer
    Process
    Psalms
    Questioning
    Recovery
    Relevancy
    Restoration
    Rocks
    Rumi
    Sacrifice
    Sadness
    Shakespeare
    Slavery
    Snow
    Social Media
    Sonnet
    Spiritual Formation
    Storytelling
    Studio
    Suffering
    Transformation
    Transition
    Vineyards
    Water
    Worship
    Writing

    RSS Feed

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

STAY CONNECTED!


© The Pastoral Artist 2022 | Designed by Tech with Tasha

  • Home
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Contact