{"id":1343,"date":"2012-04-19T22:36:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T02:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stlydias.org\/blog\/?p=1343"},"modified":"2012-04-19T22:36:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T02:36:57","slug":"heron-rises-from-the-dark-summer-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/heron-rises-from-the-dark-summer-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"Heron Rises From The Dark, Summer Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Mary Oliver<\/p>\n<p>So heavy<br \/>\nis the long-necked, long-bodied heron,<br \/>\nalways it is a surprise<br \/>\nwhen her smoke-colored wings<\/p>\n<p>open<br \/>\nand she turns<br \/>\nfrom the thick water,<br \/>\nfrom the black sticks<\/p>\n<p>of the summer pond,<br \/>\nand slowly<br \/>\nrises into the air<br \/>\nand is gone.<\/p>\n<p>Then, not for the first or the last time,<br \/>\nI take the deep breath<br \/>\nof happiness, and I think<br \/>\nhow unlikely it is<\/p>\n<p>that death is a hole in the ground,<br \/>\nhow improbable<br \/>\nthat ascension is not possible,<br \/>\nthough everything seems so inert, so nailed<\/p>\n<p>back into itself\u2013<br \/>\nthe muskrat and his lumpy lodge,<br \/>\nthe turtle,<br \/>\nthe fallen gate.<\/p>\n<p>And especially it is wonderful<br \/>\nthat the summers are long<br \/>\nand the ponds so dark and so many,<br \/>\nand therefore it isn\u2019t a miracle<\/p>\n<p>but the common thing,<br \/>\nthis decision,<br \/>\nthis trailing of the long legs in the water,<br \/>\nthis opening up of the heavy body<\/p>\n<p>into a new life: see how the sudden<br \/>\ngray-blue sheets of her wings<br \/>\nstrive toward the wind; see how the clasp of nothing<br \/>\ntakes her in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<em>Read at St. Lydia&#8217;s on April 15, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Mary Oliver So heavy is the long-necked, long-bodied heron, always it is a surprise when her smoke-colored wings open and she turns from the thick water, from the black sticks of the summer pond, and slowly rises into the air and is gone. Then, not for the first or the last time, I take [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1345,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions\/1345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}