Reflecting on the Joys of Life
There are many possibilities if we allow them into our hearts.
After a wonderful extra-long weekend visiting friends and family across Northern Illinois, I awoke feeling as if a bulldozer had run over me. I know myself well enough after all these years to be aware it is time to stop and rest. And rest I am.
Instead of my intended IT management topic, I bring you a beautiful thought by Mary Oliver.
Poetry has always played a role in helping me to reflect and recover when life weighs me down. I found myself drawn to writing poetry when I was young, during a very dark period of my teen years. When I reread my poems from that era I see a young woman crying out for help and am grateful to have that time behind me. I didn’t discover the healing power of poetry until I was in my 20s and making my way through life. That’s when life got messy, tested my ambition, and sometimes broke my heart.
After my husband passed away in 1999, I found myself more drawn to reading beautiful, inspiring poetry from such wonderful poets as Mary Oliver and Carl Sandburg. Their poems tend to reference nature, something we can always count on to inspire us.
In this poem, Mary Oliver seems to help us see that it is often hard to stop and live in the moment. Is it because we are afraid to give ourselves grace or perhaps we fear we will be disappointed if it does not last?
In this poem, she urges us to give into the moment and fully experience the joy of life. Although there are a lot of stresses and distractions in the world and “much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left.”
There are many possibilities if we allow them into our hearts. In the meantime, I wish you all find time to rest, reflect and recharge.
Until next week, Mary