Day 46: Journey

When you can't get a handle on your thoughts or feelings - look to poetry. It offers crystal clear clarification.

How many times have you read a poem and thought, 'yes, that's exactly what I'm feeling.'  How many times has it shed light on a problem or confusion?

Because poetry is truth. Poetry is wisdom. It gives good advice. And it has answers, answers you may already know deep down, as a whisper, but just need to hear them confirmed, see them shining true in words. 

Here is a poem that does exactly this.

The Journey - Mary Oliver

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.