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To live in this worldyou must be ableto do three thingsto love what is mortal;to hold itagainst your bones knowingyour own life depends on it;and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it goMary Oliver
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Look, the treesare turningtheir own bodiesinto pillarsof light, are giving off the richfragrance of cinnamonand fulfillment, the long tapersof cattailsare bursting and floating away overthe blue shouldersof the ponds, and every pond, no matter what itsname is, isnameless now. Every yeareverything I have ever learnedin my lifetimeleads back to this: the firesand the black river of losswhose other sideis salvation, whose meaningnone of us will ever know. To live in this worldyou must be ableto do three things:to love what is mortal;to hold itagainst your bones knowingyour own life depends on it;and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.Mary Oliver
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And then I feel the sun itselfas it blazes over the hills, like a million flowers on fire --clearly I'm not needed, yet I feel myself turninginto something of inexplicable value.-from The Buddha's Last InstructionMary Oliver
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I stood like Adam in his lonely garden On that first morning, shaken out of sleep, Rubbing his eyes, listening, parting the leaves, Like tissue on some vast, incredible gift.Mary Oliver
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Of course! the path to heavendoesn't lie down in flat miles. It's in the imaginationwith which you perceive this world, and the gestureswith which you honor it.-from The SwanMary Oliver
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When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it’s over, I don’t want to wonderif I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightenedor full of argument. I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.Mary Oliver