I would like to share with you a very lovely poem about water lilies by the poet Mary Oliver. She was an American poet who was inspired by nature, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the outdoors.
The Ponds
Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe
their lapping light crowding the
black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them…
the muskrats swimming
can reach out
and touch
only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world
is perfect?
I bend closer and see
how this one is clearly lopsided…
and that one wears an orange blight…
and this one is a glossy cheek
half nibbled away…
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.
Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled…
to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking
Into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing…
that the light is everything…
that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading.
And I do.
Mary Oliver
I love to go kayaking in a marsh area of our lake that is very close to our cottage. I especially like to go on a sunny day because the multitudes of water lilies are all open and so beautiful. I paddle through the lilies filled with awe and I stop to look more closely at them. When I do, I am always surprised to see that almost every lily has imperfections. From a distance they looked like a mass of perfect beauty. One of the reasons I am so taken with this poem is because Mary Oliver describes so beautifully this very same thing.
But I also relate so deeply to the emotional part of this poem…
“I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing…
that the light is everything…
that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading.
And I do.”
Some very powerful words here—mystery, imperfections, light. We are all flawed blossoms, but we are all still perfectly, perfect humans. We live in a world that so often seems full of darkness, imperfections, and stress. But God calls us to live in the light. To strive to continue to see the beauty in each other and in nature. God calls us to dwell in the divine mystery of our lives. To accept our own imperfections, and to strive, as the song says, to let our little lights shine. I am reminded of a favourite quote of mine by Leonard Cohen…
“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”
I want to close with a blessing from a beautiful song by the artist Snatam Kaur…
“May the long time sun, shine upon you.
All love surround you.
And the pure light within you,
Guide your way on
Guide your way on.”