Announcing Your Place

The other night we walked over to the lake for sunset. A perfectly gorgeous end-of-summer evening, all was in harmony.

A friend had also reminded me that we are nearing that moment of beautiful natural synchronicity when the temperature of the evening air matches the temperature of the lake. Into the water I stepped.

And then I saw this right over my head...

And how can I resist?

Wild Geese

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.

Let us walk in the holy presence.