When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does,toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage and something
precious to the earth.

When its over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When its over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

Mary Oliver

I was introduced to this reading during a meditation I was at a week or so ago. I loved it and decided I needed to share it. I was particularly struck by the image of a bride being married to amazement and being a bridegroom opening ones arms wide inviting the world. Something to ponder and rollover on the tongue letting the words uncover what moves within your being. What a grand thought and accomplishment to be married to amazement. What if this were your life’s calling? What a blessing that would be. There would be no greater way to have lived, for in amazement we discover the breath of life.