A Blessing Inspired by Mary Oliver's poem, "Wild Geese"
/A Blessing Inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese”
May we have ears to hear the voice of Love coming to us in unexpected ways.
May we be gentle with ourselves and each other when we feel like we are riding a wave that could drown us.
May we allow our softness and vulnerability to rise, and
May we pay attention to what truth it has to tell us.
May we share our despair and listen deeply to the despair of others.
May we notice the rhythms of grace found in all living things, and receive it all as gift.
May we admit our loneliness, our survivor’s guilt, our helplessness, and our overwhelm, while also holding the hope and the truth that somehow everyone and everything belongs in the family of things.
May we have eyes to see the profound reality unfolding and the patience to endure it’s revealing.
May we be ones who hark like the wild geese, shouting to each other with love and care, that each of us have needs and are needed, and we are in this together.
Mary Oliver, a great American poet treasured us with jewels and gems, one of which is her very popular “Wild Geese”. This poem was first seen in her 1986 published work, “Mary Oliver’s Dream Work”.
Check out this book full of some of her more popular work.
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
Uou only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
