Your One Wild and Precious Life
Do you like to read poetry? I discovered Mary Oliver several years ago and bought one of her books–New and Selected Poems, Volume One–which has a superb poem in it called The Summer Day.
The question she poses at the end of the poem gets me every time I read it. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Each day brings another opportunity to answer that question.
Each day brings another opportunity for us to shine our lights, to be our best possible selves, to share with the world our gifts and talents.
At a young age, I realized that one of my gifts was my point of view, how I naturally used it to help people see themselves or their situation in a different way, a better light.
Instead of seeing a situation as hopeless, I see opportunities for growth. I see an experience that can lead to greater empathy. I see a lesson in humility.
It’s an opportunity to show up yet again, to stand up and say, “I’m still here.”
And isn’t this a lot of what life is all about, really? Showing up and being you? Participating in your own life? Learning from what you experience and turning that into something beautiful?
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
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I just want to be me.
That to me is what I want to do with my one life.
Be me!
Good for you! You’re pretty awesome!
Hey Carol. I am so far behind on emails and am just seeing this. Thank you for this writing. I just strive to be the best person I can possibly be and treat everyone the same daily. I fall short many times but I pick myself up and keep trying daily. I hope you had a fabulous Christmas. Happy New Year and may God richly bless you and your family in 2019.
Love your friend,
Susan
Susan, that’s the best thing we can do–when we fall short (and we all do at some time or another)–to pick ourselves up and get after it again. I saw this quote on facebook the other day that kind of reminds me of that.
“However, I continue to try and I continue, indefatigably, to reach out. There’s no way I can single-handedly save the world or, perhaps, even make a perceptible difference – but how ashamed I would be to let a day pass without making one more effort.”
― Isaac Asimov
I think succeeding at being our best is in the trying. May you and your family be blessed also in the coming year. Love you my friend!