Look! two days in a row of Wylde Women’s Wisdom!!!! I can do it, I can do it. 🙂
Wylde Women’s Wisdom
This is your life.
You are responsible for it.
You will not live forever.
Don’t wait.
Make the time now…
Natalie Goldberg
Were there ever scarier words spoken?
Mary Oliver has answers for that:
The Summer 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 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? |
Wild Geese
| You do not have to be good. |
| You do not have to walk on your knees |
| for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. |
| You 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. |
5 Comments
Melissa – you are very welcome – and it was a pleasure meeting you too. I hope we run into each other again!
It was SUCH a pleasure meeting and talking with you today! I hope you find that “space” and time to continue your beautiful work. Love this tile and this quote from Goldberg…a much-needed reminder that I need to get started doing my art again…thank you!
Melissa
Thank you, Ladies. When in doubt, head to Mary Oliver I say! These two are absolute favorites of mine. Glad you enjoyed them!
Love these. Wisdom! Mary Oliver, Natalie Goldberg – and you. Wonderful.
These are both beautiful, thoughtful answers to life questions by Mary Oliver! 🙂