why i wake early now

read this.
and then read it again.
to see God's fingerprints everywhere.
to live a life of celebration.
to live a life of awareness.

MINDFUL

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.

It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.

Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant -

but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -

the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

- Mary Oliver