Day 30: Cultivate

Monday, so we’ll keep it tight & potent.

There are lines that could save a life (they have, many).

The poetry form of the Loving-Kindness blessing, but from another angle. A different perspective. And yet absolutely a prayer for self-compassion and grass

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, Wild Geese

May you be healthy, may you be happy, may you be safe, may you know love,
Cath

Meditation: The Loving-Kindness Meditation. Do your best. Let it be enough.

Reflection: Even if you’re not a poetry lover, what lines resonated or struck a chord. Take a deep breath and a moment to re-read it (out loud could be p o w e r f u l —).