“Once, years ago, I emerged from the woods in the early morning at the end of a walk and – it was the most casual of moments – as I stepped from under the trees into the mild, pouring-down sunlight I experienced a sudden impact, a seizure of happiness. It was not the drowning sort of happiness, rather the floating sort.
“I made no struggle toward it; it was given. Time seemed to vanish. Urgency vanished. Any important difference between myself and all other things vanished. I knew that I belonged to the world, and felt comfortably my own containment in the totality.
“I did not feel that I understood any mystery, not at all; rather that I could be happy and feel blessed within the perplexity – the summer morning, its gentleness, the sense of the great work being done through the grass where I stood.
“As I say, it was the most casual of moments, not mystical as the word is usually meant, for there was no vision, or anything extraordinary at all, but only a sudden awareness of the citizenry of all things within one world: leaves, dust, thrushes and finches, men and women. And yet it was a moment I have never forgotten, and upon which I have based many decisions in the years since.”
by Mary Oliver
On this longest day of the year, this small essay from Mary Oliver gave me a moment of reflection of all of the other days I have had when just the joy of nature brought such peacefulness. They were not profound, just a knowing of my Soul that all is well. Thank you for the reminder.
June 21, 2026
I agree, Darlene. Such a fine poet/thinker/feeler, Mary Oliver.
Thank you, Polly.