I woke up at 3:30AM from a dream I couldn’t hold onto.
Has that ever happened to you? You were in the middle of a nice dream and you suddenly woke up because of a dog barking or a kid coughing and even though you tried to grab hold of it… it just slipped out of your grasp? And suddenly, you couldn’t recall a single detail of what the dream was about?
Even though I’m quarantined at home, I’ve found ways to occupy my time between work and e-learning and just life. So much so that time slipped away unnoticed this week. I woke up and it was Thursday. And I realized that my boys and I didn’t go outside at all yesterday. The day just got away from us.
But wasn’t this time supposed to teach me something?
Am I letting those lessons slip away? Are you?
I love this poem by Mary Oliver to start my day today. It reminds me to try harder to grab onto those fleeting moments before they, like my good dream last night, slip quietly away.
Oh do you
have time to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy and
very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles
for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note, or the lowest,⠀
or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?…
⠀
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,
do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.
It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:⠀
You must change your life.
What will you hold onto today?
