the deepening ground

Moving into a new week, I find Mary Oliver’s poetry rich with invitations to live life more fully, to deepen in the places where we have been planted, and to radiate joy in the midst of suffering, remembering our part in the glorious tapestry of life. I almost packed a few poems into this post, but then you wouldn’t take the time to linger over each word, each line, each image like a lover savoring the beloved. As always, may you have eyes to see and especially ears to hear the wild geese who have just begun their southerly migration as they call you into the wonderful mystery of life despite the despair, perhaps even in light of despair. “The world offers itself to your imagination.” Will you accept the invitation? (Let me help you there – YES!)

And if that’s not enough, spend time lost in The Arcadian Wild, especially their newest album! I’ve included the song “The End” after Mary Oliver’s poem as a seemingly oxymoronic way to BEGIN the new week. Get lost in The Wild and LIVE!

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.
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.

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver from Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver © Penguin Press, 2017: pg. 347.