One of my tools to keep me on the right track is to sign up – and read – any and all newsletters that will inspire and energize me. Of these, one of my biggest inspirations is Chris Guillebeau, the creator of The Art of Nonconformity.
In today’s AONC newsletter Chris posted a poem by the amazing Mary Oliver, whose work has always moved and inspired me.
What perfect, serendipitous timing!
Oliver expresses exactly what I’m feeling right now. I’m reposting it here in the hopes that it may inspire you, my imaginary audience.
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
