Hello!
It is hard to keep up with two posts a week. I hesitate to even type that sentence, instead of simply getting to it. But I want to acknowledge that I am way off my proposed schedule of posts and appreciate those of you sticking with me as I figure out what I’m really able to commit to. I still want to aim for two posts a week because that frequency helps me stay connected (highly distractible lady here), but I promise not to stick to a predictable schedule anytime soon.
Today I want to share some appreciation for Mary Oliver. I’m feeling a little guilty for the dig I made in last week’s post and want to acknowledge my appreciation of her work. A dear friend gave me Devotions (plus several well-loved children’s books) as a welcome gift for Maya, and I’ve kept it with the others on her little bookshelf.
I open to “Carrying the Snake to the Garden”, its short lines telling a story of two lives meeting briefly, emotions high on both sides. I can picture the dark basement, the overgrown garden ripe with summer tomatoes. Somewhere deep in my memory I recall a story of a small snake sliding through a flip-flop, my mother’s I think, as she walked through the garden. For many years I thought the harmless species was a garden snake, not garter.
I want to include poems I can link to, legally, so I do the virtual equivalent of opening a book at random and pull up Hummingbirds. While climbing a tree Mary has discovered a mother hummingbird and her two chicks, who move like “three tosses of silvery water”. Again, her words offer up a memory, several memories, of precious moments I’ve spent with baby birds. When a colleague and I rescued a nest that had fallen from a tree before its occupants, also hummingbird chicks, were ready to fly. We built a new nest from a napkin and gaffer tape, and fed sugar water to the thumb-sized birds.
Or the mother sparrow who built a nest in the outdoor shower of the cabin where we lived for part of the pandemic. I like to believe she trusted us to offer protection for the two broods she laid that summer.
So this is why I enjoy Mary Oliver, because she offers a little dose of wildness that I can enjoy with my coffee while sitting on my porch looking at the city skyline, and helps me remember the times that I too was observant of small creatures. I only want a small dose though, nothing heavy-handed telling me that I’m not living fully enough. For me the pleasure is in sharing the moment and then attending to my own day, appreciating the squirrels who ate all of the figs before they ripened and who scatter walnut shells on me as I sit below.
We are headed into the wilds of Marin County this week for our first backpacking trip with Maya. All three of us ready for quality time with the birds and snakes and elk and other creatures of Pt Reyes National Seashore, which I plan to fully enjoy in the spirit of Mary O.
1st: I love that the Mary Oliver book is stuck in with the rest of Maya's library. That feels very appropriate, and like a good start to the world.
2nd: Oh wow, that hummingbird nest you made. So cool! You never showed me that!
3rd: Can't wait to hear about the backpacking trip, and how Maya likes it. Hopefully you left most of the books at home, maybe just a slim volume of poetry for the tent.....