JOURNEY

(This is a photo of an artist print that I purchased in a funky shop in a little town in Colorado (remember little bird?) on my cross country journey to begin a new a scary chapter of my life. She hangs in the foyer...her eyes bidding goodbye or welcoming me home daily.)

I "happened" upon this poem tonight and I felt that something inside that feels rattled to the bone in a "knowing" way when you read words written by someone else that could have been yours once upon a time. That's the beauty of stories, artwork, music, or poetry. Sometimes it reaches inside your soul and reminds you of something very personal.

Perhaps it will be the same for you as you read these words written by poet, Mary Oliver

The Journey

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.

Mary Oliver