every snowflake everywhere is unique, just like each day
Photo by J. Harrington
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We're going to have a short posting today because we need to go clear snow from the driveway. Every snow flake that gets cleared will set a new personal best snow clearing record. Not our favorite record, bit still... Never before have we written and posted today's blog. Another record set. But life isn't necessarily about setting records as much as it is about participation and connection. The birds and squirrels, as far as we know, are concerned with food, shelter, avoiding predation, and, as the snow stops, procreation. Mary Oliver, among others, has helped us realize this in an awesomely effective oeuvre. So, before we go walk the dogs in the snowstorm, and fire up the snowblower, we'll share (again) with you one of our favorites of her poems. It also helps us remember that soon the snow will be going from and the geese returning to our North Country.
wild geese return with the Spring season
Photo by J. Harrington
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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.
from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver
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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.
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