Tired of the election? Wondering if people still care about the type of words we use to communicate the accuracy of ideas and emotions? Desiring some spacious reading?
Fear not, thoughtful reader of The 12. I bring good news of literary pleasure.
Yesterday, Mary Oliver released a new book Upstream Selected Essays.
She begins her essays with this morsel of goodness, “In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.”
I’m a few pages in and it’s exactly the type of spiritual companion I am looking for in the land of the 2016 presidential campaign. Maybe it is what you are looking for, too.
I’m sure I’ve posted this clip before, if not twice, but it is one of the clips I go to for hope. Wild Geese is a poem that sits next to my bed. If you’ve heard it before, take a moment to enjoy this nourishment. If you haven’t, happy are you who receives the gift of this poem for the first time.
Take good care of your mental and emotional health this season, friends. Hopefully poetic delights from Mary will assist in that health!
https://youtu.be/lv_4xmh_WtE
It’s 9:45 AM in Taiwan, October 13th. I just dropped my absentee ballot into the mailbox. Taiwan’s post office will transfer it to the US Postal Service somewhere along the line, which will get it to the city clerk.
The election is over for me. I need not listen any longer. I’m set free by early voting.
America is already great. People in Taiwan, who have a very lively democracy, as yet can’t get their heads around absentee voting or early voting. It’s good to be part of both places.
Wow, did I need to hear that today! I think I first heard of Mary Oliver through you, Jes! So I thank you! I am currently reading “Thirst” and am excited to get a hold of her latest.
I hope you enjoy the new book, Jennifer!