Mary Oliver and Our Journey

Mary Oliver's poem, "The Journey," urges us to make a profound choice. Explore the at soul level what has meaning and spirit.

Listen to what we know deep down in our heart. Her voices that shout their bad advice represent our doubting minds. When we stay the course to do what we have to do then we can be transformed. Only when we do the only thing we can do we find ultimate salvation.

Let's celebrate the very thing we can save!

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 finger
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 their was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
and kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into a world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do−
determined to save
the only life you could save.