Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day” is the only poem on my office wall. It was given to me as a gift many years ago.

In the many tributes to her, the last lines of the poem are often quoted:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do 

with your one wild and precious life?

Those lines speak to me. But even more, I’m drawn to the lines in the middle of the poem:

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…

There’s something there that is so essential, so fundamental, for how I think about the world, about prayer, about gratitude.

I do not have the words to unpack the lines, nor do I need to do so. The poem says it all.

Instead I’ll just share the link to the poem as my way of giving my great thanks for all that she has given to us.

Thank you, Mary Oliver.