The Season of New Life

By Sr. Annie Klapheke, SC Federation Temporary Professed

      Click HERE to learn more about the SC Federation

      Click HERE to learn more about Annie

It is the season of springtime and Resurrection.  All around us, the budding trees and flowers remind us that new life is always possible, no matter how long or cold the winter.  These signs of new life remind me of my favorite Mary Oliver poem, The Singular and Cheerful Life.  The words of this poem offer good advice to anyone who is discerning – which would be all of us.  The advice is this: take a cue from nature, stop being so anxious, and simple allow yourself to become what God intended you to be. 

The Singular and Cheerful Life

By Mary Oliver

The singular and cheerful life

of any flower

in anyone’s garden

or any still unowned field –

if there are any –

catches me

by the heart,

by its color,

by its obedience

to the holiest of laws:

be alive

until you are not.

Ragweed,

pale violet bull thistle,

morning glories curling

through the field corn;

and those princes of everything green –

the grasses

of which there are truly

an uncountable company,

each

on its singular stem

striving

to rise and ripen.

What, in the earth world,

is there not to be amazed by

and to be steadied by

and to cherish?

Oh, my dear heart,

my own dear heart,

full of hesitations,

questions, choice of directions,

look at the world.

Behold the morning glory,

the meanest flower, the ragweed, the thistle.

Look at the grass.