In Loving Memory...

One of the sheros of my life passed into God's embrace this week...Mary Oliver.

There are so many of Mary's poems that have fed my faith and stirred my soul.

This line comes from the poem, Sometimes

"Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it."

Or I think about the words of the poem, 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 your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.

As the rabbis have said for centuries, "Words create Worlds"...and I have often deeply desired to live in the beautiful/honest/broken world Mary crafted with her words.  She preached through poems.

It is my prayer that we will continue to treasure the insights, humor, ideas, and grace Mary Oliver invited and awoken within us.

With deep, deep gratitude for the trace of God's grace Oliver's words sang to my soul...and will continue to do so.

amen.