Mary Oliver wrote:
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.
My reflection: When my son was in active addiction, I suffocated in my aloneness. I trusted very few people, felt humiliated by all that was happening in our family’s chaotic life, and looked at other supposedly happy families with envy. Living in addiction’s grasp was the most isolated time of my life.
Today’s Promise to consider: When our families are battling addiction, we feel alone, desperate, and isolated. Poet Mary Oliver offers us an expansive idea of where we can find peace. If comfort doesn’t exist in another person or group, we can access nature’s bounty – both our physical environment and our spiritual selves. Today, let us open our spirits, walk in the woods, breathe sea air, feel the rhythm of the seasons, and find abundance in life, and in our own souls. We can feel lonely in a crowd, but we can feel whole in the natural world that surrounds us.
thank you Libby, your words are always encouraging to me
Dear Pam, Thanks for your compassion and support. xo
O Libby, I love Mary Oliver. She reminds me the beauty is ever there. Saving us. So is community. Finding the kindred ones, the ones we trust. The saving grace of nature. The saving grace of arms reaching out in love and comfort. As you have to all of us. And now, our prayers have to go as well to all those who are addicted to the drug of power, the drug of hatred that fills their wounded places and emptiness and gives a temporary high, but t one that is so destructive and dangerous to all our lives. What we all need is Breath of love and forgiveness to fill us and hold us. Let there be healing to all addicted souls. Prayers.
My dearest Joy, You are so correct. Drugs and alcohol are obvious addictions, but there are many others. I join you in prayer for all of us and for all those who are suffering.
Also, you might have some words of comfort for J. Marten (see her message below). We can’t give advice, but your words are always a comfort to me.
My love to you, always.