New Joy

This morning's post offers a poem for all who are suffering the pain of loss or despair.  It is almost impossible to believe or even remember at the time but it is this loss that plows the ground of our spirit to allow new growth, new joy, to push its way toward the light.  Mary Oliver's poem is an elegant reminder.  

The video below gives you a chance to hear three poems including "Wild Geese" read by Mary Oliver.  May joy find you sooner rather than later.

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.

© Mary Oliver