Another Quick Note & Excerpts About Living (& Knowing) September 10, 2025

Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone getting rooted in friendship, peace, freedom, understanding, and wisdom.

Stay safe! Hydrate and nourish your heart, body, and mind.

“Today is a day like any other: twenty-four hours, a
little sunshine, a little rain.”

— quoted from the poem “Black Oaks” by Mary Oliver

How do you know you are sitting here (even if you are lying down), breathing here?

This is a variation of a question that keeps coming up in (what I’m calling) continuing education courses on mindfulness. I love this question, because it sharpens your awareness, your attentiveness.

Another thing that keeps popping up in these courses is the eloquence of Mary Oliver, in the form of the following quote:

“Ten times a day something happens to me like this — some strengthening throb of amazement — some good, sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.”

Lovely, right? And, it sounds like Mary Oliver, right?

There’s just one problem: Not a single person (or book) provides a source for this quote!

The lack of a source makes me wonder: Is this Mary Oliver? Or is this Molly Malone Cook?

For Those Who Missed It: A variation of the following was previously posted.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

— quoted from the poem “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver

Born today in 1935, Mary Oliver — along with her love and life partner Molly Malone Cook (b. 01/05/1925) — definitely lived a “wild and precious life.”  Around this time last year, my yoga buddy Julie sent me what she described as a “mobster/Mary Oliver parody.”

The text made me smile. What made me giggle was thinking, “ Well, if we’re being honest, Mary Oliver was kinda gangsta; she was all about that life.”

CLICK ON THE FIRST (slightly ironic) EXCERPT TITLE BELOW FOR MORE ABOUT MARY OLIVER.

Click on the second excerpt title below for a 2018 eulogy dedicated to one of my other favorite “wild and precious” people born today!

& What We Know (the “missing” Saturday post)

Just… Look – Part II: Beginnings and Endings

“You do not have to be good
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.”

— quoted from the poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

Please join me today (Wednesday, September 10^th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra   (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “09012024 Deep Listening”]

NOTE: Check the first excerpt for the playlist used in prior to 2024.

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is an app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es).

Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

### LISTEN TO YOUR BREATH: SO HUM, HAM SA ###