A few months ago I took a poetry therapy workshop where we did a number of exercises based on various poems.
We read the following excerpt from “In Blackwater Woods,” by Mary Oliver:
“…To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.”
The exercise was to finish the statement, “To live in this world you must be able to do three things…”
I wrote an answer during the workshop which is buried somewhere in my journal but last night I thought of another:
To live in this world you must be able to do three things:
- to appreciate what you do have
- to grieve what you do not have
- to move forward towards what you want
Any thoughts? I also thought about reversing the order of items 1 and 2, how does that sit with you? What are your three things?
