Repent No More...

"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 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."

"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."

It reminds me that I can soften and release into 

the discipline and dedication to "Truth of who we are"

that I love.

Rather than being vigilant, 

noticing and repenting for all the ways I am not,

being loving 

noticing and softening toward all the ways I AM. 

This path is not through

working harder, being a better person,

partner, lover, sister, friend, or

 through forced regiment or will power,

This path is through allowing, softening, 

and loving what IS.