Adult Education Opportunity, Mary Oliver

I am pleased to present the first fall ADULT EDUCATION/FAITH DEVELOPMENT Opportunity for the congregation.

As some of you may know, I am absolutely in love with the poetry of Mary Oliver. So, after some conversation with some "informal advisors around adult education," I am presenting the following class:

MARY OLIVER AS GUIDE TO THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT
OCTOBER 10, 2009 (Saturday)
9 a.m. - Noon
Mount Saint Francis Retreat Center, Pine Room

There will be ample opportunity to walk the grounds, journal, share your insights and to reflect on what matters to you. We'll some large group work together, some small group work together, and some individual reflection. Oh, and there will be snacks (Five dollar contribution to cover room and snack expenses is voluntary but appreciated).

Want to be introduced (or reminded) of the poetry of Mary Oliver...here are two poems.
When Death Comes by Mary Oliver
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

____

Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories, and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety – best preacher that ever was, dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-
darkness, to ease us with warm touching, to hold us in the great hands of light-
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.



Want to become an informal advisor around adult education? Just write me!
Roger