The Journey

I've never been much of a poetry guy, but one day my wife brought home one of those little coffee table books, the kind they sell at the check out line. It was titled Ten Poems To Change Your Life.  A pretty over rated claim for a $14 book with ten random poems, but then who doesn't want to change at least a part of their life now and then, so I picked it up and read.

Buried in the book is a short poem by Mary Oliver that spoke so deeply to my wife and I that it actually changed our lives. I share it with you. If it speaks to you like it did to us good. If not, hang on to it and some day it will give you the courage to start the  journey you've been putting off too long.

The Journey

"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 that you could save."

Someone once said, "Only those who risk going too far will really know how far they could go."  I like to say, and I'm sure I stole it from someone so long ago I think its mine, "If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space." And so I leave you with the words of one of my best travelling buddies who often asks, but only rhetorically, "What could possibly go wrong?"