You Do Not Have To Be Good

 

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
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

 Inspired by:  Kathy over at Minuscule Moments of Inspiration

This poem and Kathy’s beautiful post touched my heart and I wanted to share it with you.  Mary Oliver has a way with words, doesn’t she?  I love her poetry and I am grateful to Kathy for introducing me to this particular poem.  I think we all strive to be good, to be seen as good and to be worthy.  This poem allowed me to breathe in the life of the world and settle into the family of things without sadness.  I hope you find that it helps you too. ♥

Shine On!

xo

 

A Present for Presence

Let me tell you a story…I went to my mailbox the other day and this was what I found inside, nestled in with the junk mail and the bills.  What a lovely surprise, don’t you think?  Excuse the photos, I was using my iPhone and I’m not very good with it as you can tell ~ but my heart’s in the right place, so please keep reading….

So I opened the envelope…and saw a note from my dear blogging pal Julia Denton over at Defeat Despair!   I was so excited to get this which is my early Christmas present from her!  You see, she just celebrated her First Year Blogaversary and she threw a special party for her readers and sent US gifts!  So it actually wasn’t a surprise as I knew she would be sending something special.

She offered to send a card that we could send using one of her photos (she has amazing photos on her blog) ~ so I picked the photo below and sent in my request.

Lo and behold (sorry, I’ve always wanted to use that phrase), this is what she made for me!  The amazing photo with a black heart border and white card…complete with matching envelope!

And then also, the same but in green!

As she wrote in her note, she didn’t know which one I would prefer so she sent both!  How Sweet!!!

The point of my story is this ~

you never know whose heart you touch when you blog ~

when we reach out in love, we always make a difference ~

you never know what small gift means so much to someone’s heart ~

we are all connected in special ways ~ I treasure our connections! 

Thank you Julia for being such a special connection in my heart!  Please make sure that you stop by to visit Julia and DEFEAT DESPAIR!  and tell her Misifusa’s Blog ~ The Presents of Presence sent you!

Shine On!

xo