Wild Geese
Last week I attended an immersive training in communication skills and personal awareness "in times that call for courage and grace" through the
Academy of Communication in Healthcare
. The week was deeply connecting and eye opening for my continued learnings in how I and we communicate across differences in healthcare and in the world, and I hope to relay some of the learnings to you through future issues of One Good Thing.
I chose to delay this issue in order to be more fully present for that experience, and I appreciate your patience awaiting this issue.
Below is a poem with a wish for your well-being during the otherwise usual chaos of Mondays.
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.
