Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
It’s all precious
There is a line from Mary Oliver’s poem, The Summer Day. It goes like this: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one precious and wild life?”
I posted this on the window of my little nurse’s office at Ortiz Middle School in Santa Fe. During my 5 years there I had some students ask, “Miss, what does that mean?”. This was followed by a semi-deep discussion in which we discussed what might be waiting in their futures. I know those students spent a longer time than usual out of class. That was OK with them, and I figured that we were having a Life 101 session.
One young girl broke my heart. She and her mother had crossed over by traversing the Rio Grande. She said her mother wanted a better future for both of them. As a student she stood out in all her classes. She told me she wanted to be a doctor. Here it comes, “And I don’t care if they call me a wetback. I will do my best.” By now she must be out of high school. I hope she kept her dreams alive.
For some reason, this morning I am thinking back to so many precious and wild episodes in my own past. A friend who is about my age, posted a picture on FaceBook this morning. It is of a mother lion and two cubs up in a tree. She took it while on a 10 day safari in Tanzania. She is a premiere photographer anyway and promises to post more pictures of her trip. I will follow along vicariously, just as I did when my grandsons traveled to Africa last summer. I will not make it there, but I am fascinated by that magnificent continent.
I remember traveling with my parents to the Isle of Capri sometime in the 60’s. What I remember most about that trip was the boat ride into the Blue Grotto. It’s called that because the way the light shines into the cave in the rock makes a breathtaking blue hue that reflects off the water and on the walls. We only stayed in there a short while but it was magical. Somewhere I have a photo of my Pop standing in an arbor on that gorgeous island. He looks happy.
I’ve gone on solo camping trips to the Grand Canyon, to some National Parks in Utah, and to the Florida Keys. Finding just the right spot for the night, then setting up my little temporary home brought me great joy. I’ve been blessed to have rafted down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I’ve enjoyed camping with friends in some of the most spectacular places in these United States. Those days are behind me as well. But the memory of the magic of the outdoors is fierce. I’m happy to report that both of my children still camp. My grandsons are experienced campers because their parents want them to understand the natural world.
My life as a child was spent among the beauties of Mexico City – back then, the air was clear and clean at its 8,000 foot altitude. As a teenager I went to high school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and learned how to speak Portuguese. I have forgotten most of what I knew about that language, but I remember how it rolled off my tongue. It is actually the fifth most spoken language in the world. From the embassy of Portugal in the United States, “It is the universality of the Portuguese language that unites Portuguese, Brazilans, many Africans and some Asians…Due to not having a continuous territory, but vast separate regions spread over several continents…the language manifests a great internal diversity.”
I learned how to Scuba dive and explored the waters of a YMCA pool in Webster Groves, lakes in Missouri, some springs in Florida, the oceans of Florida, Mexico, and Grand Cayman. The world underwater is definitely precious and wild. To share the water with creatures is a privilege. Moving while underwater might be what it feels like to fly. I have always loved bodies of water of any kind. My mother-in-law, Virginia, taught me how to waterski and fly along the top of the water.
So begins this Sunday morning. I wonder what the day will bring?