Comforting Thought: Sunrise by Mary Oliver

“I thought how the sun blazes for everyone just so joyfully as it rises
under the lashes of my own eyes, and I thought I am so many!” – Sunrise by Mary Oliver

Comforting Thought: Morning Poem by Mary Oliver

If it is your nature to be happy, you will swim away along the soft trails for hours, your imaginationalighting everywhere.” – Morning Poem by Mary Oliver

Comforting Thought: When Death Comes by Mary Oliver

“When it’s over I want to say: all my life, I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.” – When Death Comes by Mary Oliver.

Comforting Thought: How to take a spiritual detox from damaging media messages

When we constantly hear that we should be smart, better connected, more productive, wealthier – you name it – it takes real courage to claim the time and space to follow the currents of our talents, our aspirations and our hearts, which may lead in a very different direction.

Comforting Thought: Real love allows for failure

Real love allows for failure and suffering. All of us have made mistakes, and some of those mistakes were consequential, but you can find a way to relate to them with kindness. No matter what troubles have befallen you or what difficulties you have caused yourself or others, with love for yourself you can change, grow, make amends and learn. Real love is not about letting yourself off the hook. Real love does not encourage you to ignore your problems or deny your mistakes and imperfections, You see them clearly and you still opt for love.

Comforting Thought: Don’t resist or block off your feelings

Real love for ourselves, by definition includes every aspect of our lives – the good, the bad, the difficult, the challenging past. the uncertain future as well as all of the shameful, upsetting experiences and encounters that we’d just as soon as forget.

This doesn’t mean that we have to celebrate everything that’s happened to us or write thank you notes to people who have hurt us. But, like it or not, the emotional residue of our experiences is part of who we are.

Comforting Thought: The Summer’s Day by Mary Oliver

“Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” -The Summer Day by Mary Oliver.

Comforting Thought: Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miled through the desert, repenting, you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” – Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Comforting Thought: Your body is not just mineral and elemental. No, it’s vividly alive

Your body isn’t just mineral and elemental. No, it’s vividly alive, as anyone knows who’s ever danced, had a sore throat, made love or stubbed a toe.

All of the baroque variety of life on earth is considered to come from a tiny common ancestor who appeared about 4 billion years ago.

Still today, on a cellular level, basic functions like respiration look similar in plants and animals. So does your DNA -we humans share about half of our genetic material with plants. We truly aren’t very far away from anything.

Comforting Thought: Real love runs on a lower voltage than our culture leads us to believe

When we pay attention to the sensations in our bodies, we can feel that love is the energetic opposite of fear. Love seems to open and expand us right down to the cellular level, while fear causes us to contract and withdraw into ourselves. Yet so often, fear keeps us from being able to say yes to love – perhaps our greatest challenge as human beings.