Your Wild and Precious Life

Your Wild and Precious Life

“Tell me,” Mary Oliver wrote, “what is it you intend to do with your wild and precious life?” What a wonderful question! And one we answer every day with every decision we make. Every action we take. And now that it is spring, the time of new beginnings, it’s a good question to ask again.

As children, we make discovery after discovery; every day brings something new; and we learn, we delight, we find joy in one wonderful new experience after another.  As we grow older, the pace of discovery slows down, but we still have many opportunities to make new and exciting finds, and open up our lives.

Perhaps some spring, we decide to plant a few flowers, and suddenly find ourselves intrigued with the world of gardening, plotting grand new schemes of beauty for the back yard. Or perhaps (like my husband) we might inherit an old clock and become passionate about collecting and repairing antique timepieces. I was in my early forties when I re-discovered writing—poetry— and found my life enriched as I never imagined.  In the process, I also discovered writers I’d never heard of. There were the many fine Nebraska poets—Bill Kloefkorn, Ted Kooser, Marge Saiser, Twyla Hansen, Barbara Schmitz, and more. I learned about nationally known writers like Sharon Olds and Marge Piercy. And then there was Mary Oliver.

Oh, Mary Oliver, how her poetry sings! “…the green fists of the peonies are getting ready to break my heart,” she writes, and “there is only one question: how to love this world.”  For Mary Oliver does indeed love the world in one dazzling poem after another. Her subjects are the mystery and wonder of nature, spiritual seeking, and praise for all that surrounds her—“the poppies, send[ing] up their orange flares,” and the blacksnake with “his long ladder of muscle.” In Mary Oliver’s life, every day brings a remarkable new find—and the opportunity to write about it.

I remember from a few years ago a summer day when I was under a lot of stress. I had a dental emergency and what with the need to spend extra time at the dentist’s office, was behind on several projects. I ran around the house, worried and harried, when a sudden movement out the window caught my attention.  It was a luna moth, hovering around the honeysuckle. I stopped, took a breath and felt a calmness move over  me.  A few days later, just as night was moving in, I heard the hoot-hooting of a great horned owl.  It was close, right outside our door.  I called to my husband, and for the next thirty minutes, we sat outside and listened to the deep voice of the owl in a tree above us, calling out in the dark.

As Mary Oliver writes, we do indeed have “one wild and precious life,” and the question is, what do we do with it. Maria Shriver, in an interview with her for “O” magazine, asked Mary how she would answer that question, specifically “What do you think you have done with your one wild and precious life?” and her answer (in addition to delighting in the world) —“I used up a lot of pencils.” I love that!  What better thing to do! So, let’s do that now, use up a little pencil lead, a little ink from our printers.

Writing Exercise:

Find Jane Hirschfield’s poem “Three Foxes by the Edge of the Field at Twilight,” and Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day.” Read the poems out loud.

1. Think of the encounters you have had with animals. Perhaps it was with a coyote or an opossum.  Maybe you were lucky enough to see a fox crossing a field as night was coming on.  Perhaps you came face to face with a raccoon
2. Choose one of the animals that especially intrigues you. Think of its physical characteristics—the parts of the animal’s body—what they’re called and what they look like. Then, write, trying to capture the wonder of the encounter, a little of the wild.

Oh, this is one wild and precious life we have been given!  Let’s live it to the fullest extent we can, and let’s write about it.  Let us hear from you…what encounters with the wild have you had? Please let us know!  –Lucy Adkins

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

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