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Dear friends, During the fall months, most traditions speaks of “the veil being thin” between the living and the dead. Whether by the influence of my own particular imprint of upbringing and ritual, or by my own sensitivity, I feel this. I feel oh-so-tender as autumn shows us its most necessary teaching – that letting go is as much a sacred part of life as everything else in the cycle. I feel closer to my own dead ancestors; how they once loved and lost and danced and saw with eyes wide open. I feel the preciousness of this moment’s living breath. Gratitude wells up within me regularly, like ocean waves, sometimes with surprisingly wild strength. And so, I am compelled to let Mary Oliver share her poetic wisdom today: 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 Autumn blessings and love to you,
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