Tuesday, January 26, 2010

"no one expects you to save the world"

Maya Stein did it yet again.
She put into precious few words,
in ten poetic lines to be exact,
exactly what I needed to hear.
Thank you, my friend.
***************************************

The headlines are begging for your help. Thousands needing homes, food.


But here, your own children, like inexpert stilt-walkers, flirt too often


with obstacles in the street. It’s no wonder you keep eyes glued


to them. The demands of love, or a job, the hard winter reining you in -


it takes all your muscle to keep your own life upright. And though you know


what you have is fortune compared to the great rift that earthquake left,


and the aftershocks continuing to destroy so much, somehow


that same fortune paralyzes, obstructs you with a heavy, gloomy guilt.


But no one expects you to save the world, no matter what you plan.


Sometimes the best thing we can do is to love everything we can.

*********************************
Can anyone hear me exhale?
Has anyone else been able to let it go a little more in the past few days?

5 comments:

MaryAnn Mease said...

well...i have heard The Call...that we need to add to our family. i can do this. i can make a difference to one or two children. i cannot save the entire world...somedays its all i can do to brush my teeth and get dressed by noon....but i can make a difference in some people's lives.

i will write to my 7 sponsored children more and tell them that i love them. they need to hear that i love them.

i am moving forward with adoption decisions, terrified and thrilled simultaneously.
husband is organizing a benefit concert thing here in town to give to Haiti.

exhale? yah...only to re-inhale :-)
what a fabulous life.

Anonymous said...

Yes, yes, yes. Thank you for posting this, yet again. I would like to share it with some of my friends as well, if you don't mind.

GailNHB said...

Michi, I did not write that poem, but I happen to know that Maya doesn't mind having her words spread around for all to read and ponder. Just be sure to include a link back to her. She is a fantastic writer.

No, we don't have to save everybody, but by all means, love all that we can and save those we can. Thanks for that reminder, Mary Anna.

MaryAnn Mease said...

and then the research deepens and the darker side of adoptions got revealed today...which causes fear and apprehension (as you read my blog today..yuk)

oh my
but..
i did make a difference today to someone
and am contemplating more ways that i can make a difference to others in a more regular pattern of life.

perhaps it will not actually be adopting...perhaps it will look like something different? i dont know...what i do know is:
because of our current life and the Haitian tragedy..we did make a decision to live out the rest of our lives differently...we opened our hearts to MORE
i think that God will take us up on that...there is alot of people out there that need love and we just might fit the ticket for some of them.

what a wild ride this is.
peace reigns.

Launa said...

Reminds me of that great Mary Oliver poem, "Wild Geese..."

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/geese/geese.html