The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?—Mary Oliver
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life?”
What makes it so hard to answer that question? Perhaps it is because we have no idea what a wild and precious life looks like. Our typical lives often don’t feel so wild. Or precious. At least not in the spiritually illuminated sense. We’re too bogged down in the mire of life. Too held in thrall by the traumas and angers and petty nonsense that prevent us from shining, from becoming that idealized self we know is out there…somewhere.
Whatever it is that you do to become your highest self, whatever path you take, it's all heading in the same direction. Whether you choose meditation, or yoga, or psychedelics, or earth medicine, or fasting, or being a whirling dervish, or whatever. Whichever path we take to get there, it is really the same. It only matters how long it takes us to get there and how long we stay connected.
By taking the slow route through contemplation—silence, awareness, meditation—we have a chance to immerse ourselves in the process of awakening. Entheogens and plant medicine are more like a round-trip bullet train. We can catch a glimpse of Connectedness, take a few snapshots and selfies then we have to race back as the medicine wears off. You can be transformed, but it takes more of the slower stuff like meditation to really hold the gifts you received and integrate them into your life.
Let’s talk about earth medicine for a moment. Not all medicines are equal. Alcohol, for example. It's natural, but it doesn't take you up and out, it takes you down and under. That may be okay for some people, but it doesn’t get you along your path; it slows you down like a couple of heavy stones tied to your ankles.
The point is that everyone is different. As long as we are all heading in the same direction, there’s no significant difference in whatever vehicle a person chooses. We are all going to arrive at whatever we need to arrive at in this life by many different paths. “There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground,” as our dear Rumi writes.
It doesn't matter how we get to be in alignment with our true self. As long as you are not harming yourself or anyone/anything else, whatever path you're on, that's the path you're on. Be okay with it. Keep heading in the direction you need to head in. The fact that you know that the path is there, means you are heading in that direction. Let that be enough.
The work is not the work. You're not working on yourself to get to be a certain way. There is no ideal you out there in the ether that you are going to become. The highest self is already within you. You listen to that person every day. Every time you are aware of something that doesn't feel right to you, the being that doesn't feel right is your true self.
I have these habits. I don't like them. I hate it when I get angry. I don't like this person that I am. I'm not good enough. I'm worthless. I am unlovable.
The voice that recognizes that the state you are in is out of balance is your highest self. You are already living that person. So the real work is embracing the emotions that you have, the difficulties that you have, as part of you—part of that warning system that says, “Hey, we are off balance.” That's something to appreciate and respect. That out-of-balance feeling is your self-regulating system. That's all.
I don't like to call the journey along the path “work”. I prefer to think of self-development or self-inquiry as a restoration. Imagine a beautiful piece of art, perfect in itself. Time goes by, dirt gets on it, age shifts and alters it. Someone recognizes that this is not the original beauty and says, Let's fix it. And then begins the restoration. Each painstaking corner of that work of art needs to be cleaned and cleared and restored with love with tenderness—with reverence in the touch.
When we restore ourselves to our original beauty (which we had before birth and at birth), before whatever traumas befell us as our lives went on—when we restore ourselves to that pristine oneness that we are, that spark of the universe—it takes a gentle hand. It's an act of love. If you see yourself as your negative emotions, then you're adding dirt to the beautiful piece of art. The very fact that you recognize a restoration is needed? That's the higher self. That's the true self saying something's off; let's fix it.
Maybe some of you are asking: Where’s the ambition in that? What else am I contributing to the world? Isn’t it selfish to just do “me” and not work for the greater good? Do something that gives back to the world? Drop ambition.
Do the restoration and you will be giving back to the world. You will be offering one more human being who is not triggered by small disappointments or misspoken words or other people’s pain that gets flung at you in desperation. You will be contributing to our world family a being who feels for others, honors their path wherever they are on it, a being who honors life around it. A being who steps into the swirling pool of living creatures and nourishes—not poisons—it with your presence. This is the noblest cause a life can have.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
If you do one thing with your one wild and precious life, let it be enough to restore yourself to your true nature. It’s hard work and it takes time, but it’s beautiful, painstaking, gentle work.
If somewhere along the way you find yourself in a position to help others on a large scale, fantastic. Do it. Goodness knows we as a species need that help. But don’t for a second think that you’re not already immensely powerful and influential just as you are.
Stay on the path, whatever path it is that brings your closer to your self, to your true nature, to Source, your home. You are the journeyer and everyone and every thing around you is touched by your presence. Every day, all the time.
So, the real question is: What are you going to do with that wild and precious honor?