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Date Posted: 23:35:58 10/04/10 Mon
Author: LauraG
Subject: Seminar message

I just returned from a seminar exploring the poem "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver.

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 your 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.

The seminar left me with deep feelings of hope for the "new" in life and anticipation for that time of year in which we find ourselves frantically preparing for the darkness to come.

To the NW Indians, fall was indeed a time of preparation and winter was often spent "inside" both in the sense of staying indoors due to the wet often cold weather and inside one's self through the use of stories. Fall was a time to prepare the hearth and soul for a time of incubation. Creativity took precedence once the food was gathered in. Men turned to carving, storytelling and dance; women to baskets, clothes and blankets. Sharing was easier inside the longhouses warmed and dried by fires.

May you gather in what you will need for the long dark time ahead. May you use that time productively and let your creative juices flow. May you share your stories with others in the hopes that you may
learn new stories to help guide your life.

I left the seminar with new hope for the world and a willingness to open myself up to what would like to come in. When I can do that, I find that those synchronous moments begin to surface (Or did I just forget to connect the dots?) and I feel much more aware of my place in the world. My art began to flow again and I am much energized.

Love to you all,
LauraG

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Replies:

[> Re: Seminar message -- BC, 06:16:45 10/05/10 Tue

I love you LauraG!
Thanks for sharing your heart!
- BC :)


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