I can be stubborn this way \u2013 a friend sent me the link for the podcast episodes of On Being<\/em> by Krista Tippet for my 50th birthday. I thought it\u2019s interesting, but just a fad and ignored it. Then two years later my daughter sent me the same link and once again I ignored it, thinking that I shall get to it sometime\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the poet Mary Oliver died on 17 January 2019 at age 83. And the rare interview with her was conducted by Krista Tippet in 2015. Many things struck me deeply while listening to the podcast, confronting my arrogant dismissal. This poem of hers, Wild Geese<\/em> resonated with me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWild\nGeese\u201d \u2014 \u201cYou do not have to be good. \/ You do not have to walk on your knees \/\nfor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. \/ You only have to let the\nsoft animal of your body \/ love what it loves. \/ Tell me about despair, yours,\nand I will tell you mine. \/ Meanwhile the world goes on. \/ Meanwhile the sun\nand the clear pebbles of the rain \/ are moving across the landscapes, \/ over\nthe prairies and the deep trees, \/ the mountains and the rivers. \/ Meanwhile\nthe wild geese, high in the clean blue air, \/ are heading home again. \/ Whoever\nyou are, no matter how lonely, \/ the world offers itself to your imagination, \/\ncalls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting \u2014 \/ over and over\nannouncing your place \/ in the family of things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following is from the On Being<\/em> website on Mary Oliver:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMary\nOliver was one of our greatest and most beloved poets. She is often quoted by\npeople across ages and backgrounds \u2014 and it\u2019s fitting, since she described\npoetry as a sacred community ritual. \u201cWhen you write a poem, you write it for\nanybody and everybody,\u201d she said. Mary died on January 17, 2019, at the age of\n83. She was a prolific and decorated poet, whose honors included the Pulitzer\nPrize and the National Book Award. In this 2015 conversation \u2014 one of the rare\ninterviews she granted during her lifetime \u2014 she discussed the wisdom of the\nworld, the salvation of poetry, and the life behind her writing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And\nabout On Being<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe\nOn Being Project is an independent non-profit public life and media initiative.\nWe pursue deep thinking and social courage, moral imagination and joy, to renew\ninner life, outer life, and life together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n