Wild Geese

I thought I would pass along a poem that Maria shared with us in the prayer on Monday morning!

ENJOY!

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.

© Mary Oliver.