HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
Starter: Mary Oliver, “Of Love”
I have been in love more times than one,
thank the Lord. Sometimes it was lasting
whether active or not. Sometimes
it was all but ephemeral, maybe only
an afternoon, but not less real for that.
They stay in my mind, these beautiful people,
or anyway beautiful people to me, of which
there are so many. You, and you, and you,
whom I had the fortune to meet, or maybe
missed. Love, love, love, it was the
core of my life, from which, of course, comes
the word for the heart. And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women
and some—now carry my revelation with you—
were trees. Or places. Or music flying above
the names of their makers. Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the best, the most
loyal for certain, who looked so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. So I imagine
such love of the world—its fervency, its shining, its
innocence and hunger to give of itself—I imagine
this is how it began.
-Mary Oliver, from Red Bird (Beacon Press, 2008).
Could LOVE be the meaning of life?
FOUR CORNERS
Time in nature can lead to spiritual awakening.
In order to live our best lives, we should live simply with fewer material possessions.
TRANSCENDENTALISM
LESSON: American Transcendentalism
READ: Excerpts from Walden
OPTIONAL: Leaves of Grass
NOTES/RESPONSE: Transcendentalism and Walden