Just like that – every time, when you think you could not go any further, deeper, closer, you do – until you can’t. Also, advice on lifting things, since life often throws things on your way and you need to move them around. Do not attempt to lift by bending forward. Bend your hips and knees to squat down to your load, keep it close to your body, and straighten your legs to lift. sorrows especially, you gotta keep them really close to you heart, then you can lift them, take them to river, and the let river take them! We all have things to lift, this is to tell you that – You are not alone!
By Mary Oliver from the Thirst
That time
I thought I could not
go any closer to grief
without dying
I went closer,
and I did not die.
Surely God
had his hand in this,
as well as friends.
Still, I was bent,
and my laughter,
as the poet said,
was nowhere to be found.
Then said my friend Daniel,
(brave even among lions),
“It’s not the weight you carry
but how you carry it –
books, bricks, grief –
it’s all in the way
you embrace it, balance it, carry it
when you cannot, and would not,
put it down.”
So I went practicing.
Have you noticed?
Have you heard
the laughter
that comes, now and again,
out of my startled mouth?
How I linger
to admire, admire, admire
the things of this world
that are kind, and maybe
also troubled –
roses in the wind,
the sea geese on the steep waves,
a love
to which there is no reply?
One Poem At A Time 