I am so inspired by the poetry of Mary Oliver. One intriguing question she asks is this:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
It’s much more probing and introspective than the question we often ask ourselves: “What am I going to do today?” It speaks instead of our one chance, our one wild and precious life. Answering that kind of question is a process and a quest, a question we ask ourselves constantly as our life unfolds before us.
The answer can involve rain forests and green valleys, mountains of grandeur or oceans that rise and fall with the tide. The answer can involve sunsets and rainbows, starry moonlit nights, soft summer storms and silent snowfall. We answer such a question best when we are one with nature, basking in God’s miraculous world of wonder. Mary Oliver instructs us:
It was what I was born for —
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world —
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation . . .
I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.
As though I had wings . . . what a wonderful way to live this one wild and precious life!
