One of you put me on to Mary Oliver, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet – thank you for that!
She had an uncanny knack for relating the human condition to the natural world.
This one is probably the best advice I’ve come across for how to deal with a low mood. It’s one to keep in your back pocket for bad days:
Today
Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all of the voodoos of ambition
sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m travelling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of doors
into the temple.
~ Mary Oliver
So if you’re in one of those fathomless pits where every idea is rejected; every notion a calamity… just rest.
Don’t try and fix it.
Be small; be quiet.
The clouds will pass and you’ll see the sun again.
💟
Giles