Today I share a piece of writing by Mary Oliver.  It is from a book called Ten Poems to Change Your Life by Roger Housden, which my dear daughter gave me.

For me, this poem evokes a thump in the chest; eyes flash wide open as if awaking from a dream with the distinct feeling of recognition, and a thought of "Oh my.  I have walked this journey...". 

The epiphany of finally "knowing what you have to do" - I think it comes to each of us, if we are lucky, and if we pay attention.  Though I cannot say at what age, or what finally makes us see.  But, I think you have to have enough years behind you, enough wisdom, to realize that there is no selfishness in its conclusion.  Only the stark realization that we are responsible for our lives, and that the very best thing we can do for the world, for each other, is to do what it is we alone were sent here to do.

THE JOURNEY – by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.

It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life that you could save.