The Graze V.150: Invitation

Dear Friends,

In 1891 Elizabeth Wood Clement had a vision for Mission Farm - her birthplace- in the heart of the Green Mountains of Vermont. Elizabeth, envisioned this place should be dedicated to the betterment of the local rural community. She commissioned a quaint stone church to be built but her vision went well beyond a space for people to meet on a Sunday morning. As a widow, she experienced the difficulty of isolation, the challenges of weather and geography, and understood the importance of gathering the local community. Her vision was for a space of connection - connection with one another, connection with the beauty of nature and connection with the Source of all Goodness……Elizabeth built a space of invitation. As there is something about this place at the foot of the mountains and bend in the river that beckons all who pass by and who stop and linger and are blessed by this place.

“Invitation” by Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

Mary Oliver, “Invitation,” A Thousand Mornings (New York: Penguin Books, 2013).

Peace and all good,

Lisa+