As I walk along this path I've stepped upon, my feet are paced to the rhythmic pattern of my heart. Each palpitation bringing another tune to the melody of my soul. What a wild and precious journey i have come to cultivate. what an amazing consummation just a few short years have brought me.
I've been asked many times how I am able to be a surrogate. How can I carry a child for someone else? There is no simplistic answer to this and on any other given day I might have shared with you a myriad of responses to this very inquiry. But not today. No, today I want to ask you something.. and by doing so I will answer your question with another.
What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
I first read this on a blog I follow. This woman's moving life experiences have satisfied my inspirational hunger for over a year now. Her stories, photographs and words touch me beyond explanation. So, from that one post I found a poem..
The Summer Day
~ Mary Oliver
~ Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
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?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
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?
So, in the magnificent words of Mary Oliver I will answer the how and the why with this.. tell me, what else should I have done?
Last week I received a very beautiful comment to my post (hello, and thank you so so much again). That comment sparked a lot of emotions in me. Reading it and the words in my post also touched Papa, and I received one of the most heartfelt emails from him. At the end of his email he said to me, thank you for responding to that very first e-mail I wrote. That day changed my life forever.
Truthfully, it changed mine.
They had me at day one.. they stole my heart in 1-2-3.
"what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
ReplyDeleteallow the wild to grow. never cage it. let it flow.
allow the precious to sink in. revel in it. marvel.
i plan to delve deeper. even when it hurts. i plan to question. to sit without answers, in quiet and solitude. to know that the path i walk is a spiral, walking both away from itself and within itself.
----
you are a gorgeous, spark of a soul. a true BEing, a giver and a healer. what an honor to have but a peek into your journey.
and hello mary oliver...one of my favs :)
love and light.