Save the only life you can save.

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

The summer has finally finished for me. By now the weather is well into fall, and my festival season is officially over.

Back at home and trying to adjust. This summer was so intense there was barely time to think, and suddenly I’m back in Montreal, people have started to snowbird away, everything has become quieter, and I wonder how I all but missed 6 months here.  

And suddenly I’m back in my studio staring at a sculpture commission I’m trying to finish and having the hardest time motivating myself to concentrate. 

 So today I will give myself a little bit of grace, and allow myself some sitting in the sunshine reading poetry. It think after the intensity of this summer I’ve earned a few days off.