Wild Geese

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.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver published by Atlantic Monthly Press 

Opening poem chosen and read by Nancy L.

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Wondered over to the area that captures a bit of the past use of Brookgreen Gardens. Felt some sense of peace on this spring day as I looked through the eyes of today and tried to imagine the past. Times have changed some of the place for black Americans in our society. Today the lawn was being carefully mowed by a black employee of the Gardens. But years ago this tiny frame of a house stood here on this same spot.. Home to a whole family that labored long miserable hours for the owner.

How fortunate I am and how grateful for my life of privilege. But with this comes my awareness today of existing injustices. Taking time to wonder here tied together lots of feelings,sensations and thoughts from the past few days of the civil rights tour in Atlanta and viewing the movie Selma.

Photos and reflection by Mary W.

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Photo by Sue J.

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My prayer as I walked through Magnolia Allee:

May I be the magnolia flower
opening to my fullness
moment to moment,
offering unselfconsciously
my sweet fragrance to the world,
knowing that in all my stages, from bud to browning,
You have made me beautiful,
just being, held still on a branch of wonder,
to announce my place in the family of things.

Photos and poem by Amy W.

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I began my walk with an intention around inner and outer peace. I wandered to the Native American women sculpture and was taken in by the peace expressed in their faces. I stood for a few moments and gazed into their faces — they seemed so alive and I felt embraced by a sense of inner peace. The eagle sculpture close by — representing a powerful predator –jumped out at me as such a dichotomy to the women…  My mind turned to Mary Oliver’s poem– “announcing your place in the family of things”. Serene human beings, powerful eagles, predators, peace makers — they all belong in the family of things. 

In thinking about “they all belong” (or it all fits) I was inspired to create a still life of various objects of nature — a leaf, some bark, a stick, pine cones, a feather … now separate from their origins of the living tree or bird, but still belonging in the family of things. 

Photos and reflection by Nancy L.