Mary Oliver: The Journey

This morning in my therapy session, my therapist reflected back to me how it was that I had sensed and chosen to get on that lifeboat off a sinking ship. I especially resonate with this profound choice at two times in my life. The first was in June of 1975 when my first husband and I left Michigan and all that we had ever known and headed West, destination unknown. One month later, when our money ran out, we'd landed in the Pacific Northwest. And I've been here ever since. The second time was when I left my marriage in 2002, a relationship that had lasted 31 years. Both times, at some level, I knew that I had been living on a sinking ship. And somehow, as Mary Oliver reflects so wisely in this poem — and through mystery, resilience, grace, courage, and listening to a deep inner knowing — I had become determined to save the only life that I could save. There is grief in all those the losses, in all that I left behind. And there is also an indescribable depth of gratitude for the richness of my life today — one that could not have happened if I had not been willing to listen and embark on the courageous journey of being true to myself. I also need to acknowledge that out of these experiences has been born a depth of compassion for myself and my loved ones and all that we humans struggle with. Deepest bow of gratitude for this amazing journey. 🙏 Molly

Photo by Molly

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 

From Dream Work