Spring – an invitation to linger

The Coach’s Corner Newsletter #96

Spring is bursting here in Texas and I am taking the opportunity to look at the feathery details of these peach blossoms just a little longer.

I’m hearing songs of the Red-Winged Blackbird, Grackles, Robins, the Northern Mockingbird, even the American Goldfinch.

And this week I’m taking time to read poet Mary Oliver, again, to savor this season of amazing growth.

THIS WEEK’S INSIGHT

Spring – an invitation to linger

Invitation
Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude—
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

My takeaway

Sit! Sit down.

I need you to sit here.

There you go.

The voices of little ones call out to me, asking that I come and join them on the ground. To get on the grass so I can look up at the sky. To blow dandelion flowers and see where the seeds float. To count the ants crawling around a tree.

We hear the chorus of birds around us. We feel the wind.

Mary Oliver reminds me to

linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day

And in so doing, I am drinking in this season of spring. Oliver continues,

it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.

I will get up off the grass soon and continue with my day – but these moments are well spent and fill me with energy to face all the rest of what lies before me.

May you find time to linger…for just a little while.