A Summer’s Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

Saturday 20th of June 2026, 10:00-17:00

KenKon, Wageningen

With Joël Zwaan & Annick Nevejan

To register click here

In 2026 we offer each season a Spiritual Ecology practice day to align us with the rhythms of nature, the seasons, the Earth, our bodies, the sun and the moon.

During the third seasonal practice day of the year, we gather to celebrate the height of summer and reflect on its gifts and lessons. Mary Oliver’s poem A Summer’s Day articulates the question that midsummer has posed to us for centuries, the question that is encapsulated in the longest day of the year: how do we spend the time that has been given to us?

Like the brief moments of stillness between an inbreath and an outbreath, the culmination of the summer season can also be a time where we quiet down our usual activities, a time to “fall down in the grass”, open up our senses, and allow ourselves to be nurtured and inspired by the living world in all its expressions.

During this practice day, we focus on the theme of listening. Together we will explore what unfolds when we let go of our busyness to simply listen to the sounds of our surroundings, to each other’s stories and stirrings, and to the whispers of other-than-human lifeforms around us. Some of the modes of listening we will practice together are:

• Playful listening reconnects us to the immediacy of our sensory experience. What might we discover if we bring a playful curiosity to the world that is always buzzing and whirring around us? What surprises might we find if we tune into the evolving landscapes of sound around us, from the tiniest insects below to roaring plane engines above?
• Compassionate listening can help us make space for the stories and worries, the joys and struggles that others carry. How can we cultivate the gift of listening fully to each other? And what shifts in our hearts and minds if we are listened to without an agenda?
• Deep listening explores imaginative ways to open ourselves to the other-than-human world. Is it possible to listen to the body of the earth? Can we sensitize ourselves to the flows of communication that run through the trees, the soil, the entire ecosystem we are a part of?

Throughout the day, we will offer a variety of practices that invite you further in your exploration of our theme, such as meditation, movement, nature connection, creative exercises, insight dialogue, and the sharing of a beautiful lunch together.

To register click here