Words of Wisdom

Nov 05, 2015

There are sages who have gone before us, yet their words live on. Rumi, is one example. He was a 13th-century poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic.  Rumi's influence even today, centuries later transcends national borders and ethnic divisions.

Author and poet, Mary Oliver is another whom I consider a sage. Her words resonate now and I imagine that they’ll carry forward just as Rumi’s have. Such wisdom is timeless. Here is one such writing from Ms. Oliver that speaks to the shifts into Winter and Winter Solstice.

Lines Written in the days of Growing Darkness by Mary Oliver

Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends
into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out
to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing, as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married
to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do
if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?
So let us go on
though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.

— MARY OLIVER, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author

Our daylight continues to shorten here in the northern hemisphere. We know that lies ahead. In my next post, I’ll elaborate further on the gifts, the myths and challenges of Winter Solstice.