"Whoever you are"

I love Mary Oliver's poems. I love the way she is able to use words with an austerity that feels inspired, almost like going to church.
Her words look deep into the soul, the yearnings, desires, and hurt we all experience in this life.
In that way she creates community, an underlying wisdom that conveys the great paradox - while we are on one hand following a path all our own in this life, we have fellow travelers on this journey, sharing experience, helping one another to experience God in this realm on our way to the next. 
I, for one, am thankful that you are journeying with me, my friend.

"Wild Geese"  by Mary Oliver
click here for link to artwork

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.