Take a deepening breath in. On the exhale feel the spirit quieting and holding you until you grow easy. Release the fluxing. Go swimming.
“Swimming, One Day in August” by Mary Oliver*
- It is now, I said,
for the deepening and quieting of the spirit
among the flux of happenings.
Something had pestered me so much
I thought my heart would break.
I mean, the mechanical part.
I went down in the afternoon
to the sea
which held me, until I grew easy.
About tomorrow, who knows anything.
Except that it will be time, again,
for the deepening and quieting of the spirit.
*from Red Bird: Poems (Beacon Press, 2008)
