Wild Life with Mary Oliver

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
~ Mary Oliver (“The summer day”)

Wild Life: Tell me, what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life? ~ Mary Oliver

Wild Life with Mary Oliver

Will you spring up from your pillow in the morning, heart racing, mind wild with questions and dreams? Will you sing softly then louder – to your spouse, your child, your dog, your view – an extemporaneous anthem of wants and wills and when’s and why’s?

Will you step into a steaming shower and listen to the raindrops and streams and oceans as you suds yesterday from your skin and hair? Or will you stride past the shower, the bathtub, the sink and dance directly to the lake? Will you dive in and swim until the shore calls you home again.

Will you pluck swollen raspberries from the brambles, grapes from the vines that wind through the fence around the garden, an apple from the gnarled tree in the first meadow?

And then, rested and clean and sated, how will you live this wild and precious morning?

Good luck! (And thank you, Mary Oliver.)

Mary Oliver Resources

4 Comments to “Wild Life with Mary Oliver”

  1. Bridget says:

    Love this!!

  2. virtualDavis says:

    Glad (and not surprised) that you connected with this post, Bridget. You are celebrating and dancing and singing this wild adventure called life. You’re an inspiration! :-)

  3. Judithhb says:

    Mary Oliver is definitely one of my favourite poets and I use her quotes, this one in particular, often. :)

  4. virtualDavis says:

    Thanks for your comment, Judith. It’s not a bad idea to start EVERY day by reading this quote. Or the whole poem for that matter. Cheers!