It is August, the last days of summer. I think of August as a time to refresh and renew, to savor the longer days and sweet evenings. I recently had an opportunity to take time away from my regular routine and do just that.
One evening we decided to watch a program advertised on PBS, The Green Planet. The episode titled “Waterworlds,” was fascinating. The program gave viewers an experience of the worlds that teem within the waters of our planet. The experience was one of wonder and mystery; the beginning of new life, suffering and death, and the transformation of resurrection. It captured the resilience and adaptability, the fragility and strength of the ecosystems. The sheer beauty and wonder that abounds was profound.
Following the program, we found ourselves drawn into greater curiosity as we watched yet another show about the James Webb Telescope. Tenacity, vulnerability, perseverance, risk, trust, and global collaboration all join to provide yet another experience of mystery. We saw deeper into space toward the heart of created life millions of light years away. To top it off, that evening ended with a spectacular view of the super moon.
Earlier in the day, I joined my sister’s children as we brought closure to her passing by bringing her remains to a place of rest. She had donated her body to science and now her loved ones could bring her home, remember and celebrate her gifts and the mystery of life transformed.
As we enter into these last days of summer, may we be ever attentive to the life that teems within and around us. May we notice light beckoning, overflowing with opportunity and open ourselves to be stretched beyond our knowing. May we be ever grateful for these amazing days.
E.E. Cummings said it well:
thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)