Tag: meditate

Meditating Gloriously

“I prefer to lounge under a tree…

Of course I wake up finally

thinking, how wonderful to be who I am…

my own thoughts, my own fingerprints –

all that glorious, temporary stuff.”

from ‘On Meditating, Sort of’ by Mary Oliver

These beautiful lines by Mary Oliver are more than a “sort of” meditation (her title of the poem!).

They speak to me about her uniqueness as a human being – all of our uniqueness as individual, differentiated people – and I love how she links her “sort of” meditation with lounging under a tree.

The photograph below was of a unique moment recently. The sun was setting as I looked out over the floods of the River Severn, and then I noticed the beautiful, unique reflections of the trees (they are normally standing in a field!).

How wonderful to be who we are – our own thoughts, our own experiences, our unique, glorious “stuff”.

Meditate on Things…

“Sure Man was born to meditate on things,

And to contemplate the eternal springs

Of God and Nature…”

Thomas Traherne, “Dumbness”

Colemere is small, tranquil lake in North Shropshire, which I have posted about before, and this beautiful mute swan lingered near the banks on a recent visit.

Reflection seems to be as natural for us as humans as it is to the surface of water, and it is something that is distinctively human.

Colemere

I saw beauty in these simple, but complex, reflections of light and dark on the surface of the water, just as I did in the simple white beauty of the swan.

And I agreed with Thomas Traherne: “Sure Man was born to meditate on things“.

His lines are from a beautiful, thoughtful poem called “Dumbness” (in the sense of not being able to speak), and you can read the full poem here.

When the world speaks to us in such beautiful, reflective ways, it is good, very good.

I hope these reflections, and Traherne’s poetry, have spoken to you.