The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/mary-oliver)
As summer draws to a close, there’s a quiet, almost melancholic shift in the air. The golden days of warmth, laughter, and endless sunlight are slowly fading. With each shorter day, the night seems to creep in earlier, reminding us of the approaching autumn— a season that, like life, is marked by change and the bittersweet passage of time.
Beloved American poet Mary Oliver once wrote, “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”[1]
Darkness has prevailed in the Western hemisphere; autumn mourns the loss the sun whom no doubt returns triumphant in spring. Where once temples illumined, now there may only enough oil for one night of eight. Others too have readied themselves for a long journey at the mid hour of night. That story goes: wise men saw a star in the east and followed.
[With the Summer Solstice just a week away, we decided to take a pause from our regular schedule and invite Erick DuPree back to share his thoughts on this seasonal celebration. DuPree is the author of Alone in Her Presence: Meditations on the Goddess and editor of Finding the Masculine in Goddess’ Spiral. He teaches heart-centered practices that unite breath to heart, inviting a holistic relationship with the Goddess. His writing can be found on his own website as well as on the Patheos Pagan Channel.]
“Who made the world?” begins Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day … “Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?”