JOURNAL PROMPT (QUOTE): Precious Life!

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets. Her words don’t rest on the page … they sparkle and leap into the air. She tells us to look up, pay attention. Explore the world through new eyes. In the above passage, she implores us to appreciate and make use of every moment that brings life to the matrix of our very core.

This past June, I turned 60 … my gosh, it still feels foreign to say that. Very close to that head-snapping anniversary, I met a woman my exact same age. She had survived a rare form of cancer. She’d lived through chemo and radiation and a bone marrow transplant. When I said, “What do I do now … I’m 60,” she looked at me and said, “You appreciate every moment. Every moment.”

Last week, I met a woman who is 67. She’s expanding her career, looking forward to new challenges, new words to read and absorb. She said, “I need to live to be 100 if I want to see and learn everything there is available to me!”

What delicious role models!

And I realized, more than ever, the importance of embracing this precious life I’ve been given. Sometimes I forget that message. I take the special things for granted and worry about those chores and times that really detract from the jewels that are important in life.

So I listen to the flurries in my heart. I’ve deepened my spiritual practice, created a labyrinth, become serious about Qigong and wake up every morning knowing that wonderful things are going to happen that day. My career is evolving, taking on new dimensions. Relationships are more important than ever and I hold those I love even closer in my soul. I remember to pause long enough to smell flowers, watch birds, smile at strangers and search for cloud shapes … even in the gray skies of the Pacific Northwest!

Prompts: What in your life feels wild and precious? What do you want to do that you haven’t done yet? What have you explored or tried over the past year that plants another seed in the creation of a life that is rich and rewarding? Is there something you need to release that is holding you back? Is there something special you want to do over the next year to warm your heart and ignite your spirit?

Set a timer, write for 5 minutes. Fast. Allow the pen or pencil to fly across the page. Read over your words. What are the “ah ha’s” that have emerged from this brief exploration?