
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
I’ve come across this quote many times through the years and I’ve always liked it.
A few months ago I found that this quote is actually part of a poem, written by Mary Oliver.
The entire poem is so much better than just that one quote…..
It’s now my very favorite, and often the essence of it runs through my mind.


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 down 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
Hope you have a blessed Monday, my friends. You are loved. xoxo
Oh that is an awesome awesome quote. Love it, and happy Monday right back at ya!
Marvelous post and poem. Great picture of you in the field enjoying nature.
I like that.
What a great question! Certainly, this gift is too precious to waste!
I love that poem, I love all of her poems, she is so gifted! Beautiful first picture, peeking out at the meadow, makes me want to go explore!