This poem was read by Willie Reid at the public opening of Paula’s Place on December 6th, 2006. Willie was a former principle, mentor and dear friend to Paula who inspired Paula to pursuer her creative passions.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

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 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?

The essence of Paula’s life and everything she stood for as an educator, an artist, a woman, mother, sister and friend has been captured in Paula’s Place.

And today, on the official opening of Paula’s Place, I invite each of you to ignite your creative energy and to realize that one little dot marks the beginning….Thank you. I will now ask Lana to come up.