To leap in the froth of waves

July has come. We still have half a year to make 2020 a time of growth, even in the face of struggle, grief, and profound loss.

In January I shared Rabindranath Tagore’s “Song 36” from Gitanjali as a prayer for the new year:

This is my prayer to you, my [loving God] — strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart.

Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.

Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.

Now that 2020 has unfolded as a time of trial and challenge, Tagore’s song strikes me as even more pertinent. But I want to complement it with Mary Oliver’s “Prayer”, a poem from the 2009 collection Evidence:

May my ashes, when you have them, friend,

and give them to the ocean,

leap in the froth of the waves,

still loving movement,

still ready, beyond all else,

to dance for the world.

This is my heart’s desire and my spirit’s prayer: may we, even in our time of sorrow, even with broken hearts, remember to leap in the froth of waves and to dance for the world.

Foto de portada: Playa Quesera, Pacífico costarricense