On mindfulness, the sun, and the environment

People around the world are talking and writing about the environment today.  I’m one of them.

One of the things I want to try and say is that paying attention to the world that we live in, not taking things for granted, being mindful – well that’s a key shift that will help us to do the things we need to do, say the things that we need to say, learn the things that we need to learn.

But sometimes my own words seem too small in the face of something so important.  So I thought I’d share a poem that to me is all about being mindful, being grateful for the resources that we have, paying attention to the wonders of this most amazing world that we are blessed with the chance to live in.

The Sun

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly
oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

The Sun by Mary Oliver is a contribution to Blog Action Day: a world-wide conversation on the environment.