Sharing A Gift

Sometimes I come upon something special that I would like to share with the people I care about. This week my newsletter is a poem, written by one of my favorite poets, which captures so much of what I feel as I journey through my life: day by day, month by month, year by year. The final lines are the epigraph for the novel on which I am working. For those of you who don’t usually read poetry–don’t be intimidated. This is an easy one that will move you and make your bravery worthwhile.

Enjoy!

Yours,

Linda

The Journey
by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voice behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of the clouds,
and their was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.