Instructions for Life

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting– over and over announcing your place in the family of things. – Mary Oliver in “Wild Geese”

Family of Things

Mary Oliver saw herself in the family of things.  She recognized that by opening to what was happening around her, she was already part of the natural world. Imagine Mary as a young child walking alone in the woods away from her difficult home life when she first heard the raw honking of Canadian geese break silence.

She saw the kindness of the lead bird float on air currents allowing trailing birds to fly faster with less effort. The tired goose dropping back, graciously letting others take the lead. Oliver watches the flock head to the same wetlands where food and safety were plentiful. A beautiful rhythm year after year. Mary Oliver took this wisdom of what she encountered in nature and wrote many poems. In “Wild Geese”, she penned these words “you do not have to be good” nor “walk on your knees,” but let the “soft animal of your body love what it loves.” In my reflection of these words, I think Mary suggests that experiencing the natural world helps us begin to shift from whatever we’re experiencing—anger, frustration, sadness—and realize there is a place for us. That we can accept ourselves—belong.

Oliver’s instructions for life are  simple: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” She said one of the wonderful things about being immersed in life is the joy of surprise. Feeling joy is a redemption for our life, no matter our struggles she insisted “the world goes on…”

My Instructions for Life
Lately, I’ve been reading aloud poetry to myself during these turbulent times. Oliver’s “Wild Geese” is one that resonates, stirring me to deeper examination of the world and my part in it. Much of her poetry reflects the times she spent as a child escaping to nature finding solace and connection. Her antidote to personal struggles was the out of doors, the natural world.

For me, I am walking the trails looking for the scatter of brightness, fall to my knees to gently pick up a magenta petal that has been tossed in the wind. At night the dark sky wrapped in black velvet with pinpoints of bright silver leaves me breathless with wonder. Heartbreak for the world is still there but I’m moving forward, trying like Mary Oliver suggests to embrace what the giving world has to offer.

Writing words these words, processing them as I write and re-write gives me disciplined concentration. Author Patricia Sterne said “Love is in supreme form, concentration.” I am devoted to spending time loving this world no matter what. Arm in arm with family, friends and neighbors and all matter of green flora—my family of things—I tap into their interconnectedness. Searching for the non-negotiable, the essential, its giving and receiving, I  make visible what matters to me.  As Joanna Macy said, “We don’t have to know the answers…we just have to live into the truth.” – Becky Breed

Writing/Creativity Exercises:

1. Listen to “Wild Geese” https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/09/24/mary-oliver-reads-wild-geese/Listen a second time taking note of the following lines: Whoever you are, no matter how lonely/the world offers itself to your imagination/calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting/over and over announcing your place/in the family of things. What do these words mean to you? What is your family of things? Write or draw your meaning.
2. With beautiful brevity, Mary Oliver shared her Instructions for Life. “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”. The way we are in the world is related to our family and community upbringing and values, religious influences and/or personal successes or failures. Select one or two from this list or generate one from your own influences what was learned. Write your story and share with someone. What are your Instructions for Life?
3. Reflect on the ways nature has influenced you. Consider the story about Punch the macaque money who found comfort in a stuffed orangutan, read again Walden by Henry David Thoreau or recall the sweet memory when you were under the stars. Write a poem about how nature changes you.

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