The Journey

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began …
                                        ~~ Mary Oliver

I love the beauty of bearing witness to joy and sorrow, of finding myself in the place where they overlap, and seeking to celebrate the humanness in one another.

I love language and creative arts for their ability to show beauty where beauty is neglected, inspire where hope is lost, give voice where someone has been silenced, raise curiosity and wonder, and show humanness in situations where people have been forgotten, misunderstood, marginalized, disregarded, dehumanized, and made invisible.

Please send me a message on my contact page if you would like to know more about my writing and writing process, or want to join a workshop or course.

Enjoy one of my favourite poems below.

The Journey (by Mary Oliver)

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 voice 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 that you could save.

Mary Oliver, American poet, 1935-2019