I saw this Oscar Wilde quote and it made me realize how
often we try to be someone other than ourselves. We think everyone else
looks good in a bathing suit or everyone is funnier than we are, or perhaps
that people only love us because we have talents that they need. Many are
afraid to be themselves because they are afraid they wouldn't be
liked. Some, in their past, found love was conditional, given only
if we were good or didn’t cause any trouble. Some never felt good
enough because those they loved never affirmed them. And so we build a
wall around ourselves in order to protect ourselves. But the call for us
is to take the journey deep into ourselves and recognize the beauty that is
there.
Here is a poem by Mary Oliver that helps me remember the
really journey of my life....Happy journeying!
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 voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there 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.
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 voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there 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.
Mary Oliver, Dream Work, Grove Atlantic Inc., 1986 & New
and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992.
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