mindful

I'm having one of 'those' days...work is stressful, feeling weirdly insecure and anxious about posting self-portrait photos on flickr, just kinda blah overall...

I was reminded of a poem that my yoga teacher often reads before and/or after class. It speaks to me about yoga but also about photography and my quest this year to be more aware and mindful of the world around me.

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 ~