Reflect and create

Welcome to August, one of my favorite months for a few reasons. It reminds me of the feeling of a vacation's third or fourth day. In August, the heat insists I slow down a bit more, and in that slowing down, I reflect. 

Today I’m reflecting on last week’s Breathwork Retreat at River Mountain in the beautiful landscape of Everett, PA. With this group of 24 people, we came together as strangers and left as a connected community. There was lots of reflection, and I noticed in myself and others that reflection makes space for creating. 

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

It’s her poignant and pressing question, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? 

In August, our theme is Create. Creating can be about making things, writing a book, making art, or cooking a fantastic meal. And it is about planning and envisioning your one “wild and precious life.” 

The reflection and space of August invite me to throw in lots of ideas and then notice which ones float to the surface for me to take action around when the surge of September energy arrives. 

What would you like to create with your one wild and precious life?