Profound Thoughts

“Tell me,
what is it you plan to do
with your one
wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

Way back in August 2011 at the very beginning of my blogging journey I wrote a post on Waking in the night.  This was prompted by a post from Peter at Counting Ducks.  Peter says rather eloquently that “Ultimately though it’s what you’ve done, who you’ve known and how you acted when there was no compass or someone to judge your actions that measure how you’re  using your brief time on this planet.”    He adds as a conclusion “Just connect with whats around you and people who matter with you.”

How this resonates with me at this time in my life.  I have no compass to guide me although I have been through this slough once before.  I know that only I can decide how to act and react at this particular time (or at any time) in my life.  I can choose to be miserable and make my family and friends miserable – at least for a time until they get fed up and move on, or I can face life with a smile on my face and a determination to make the most of everything that I have.

I say that “I Choose How I Will Live the Rest of My Life” and I choose not to let this set back (the death of my beloved architect) determine who I am for the next stage of my life.  He would not want me to be miserable and so I am going forth to embrace all that this wonderful world has to offer a woman in the final years of her life.

And because Mary Oliver is without doubt my favourite poet of the 20th/21st Century I offer this :

“…there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life you could save.”
―Mary Oliver, 1935 –