Wild and precious

A reader* noticed Mary Oliver’s ”The Summer Day” in last week’s newsletter, and she wrote to recommend an episode of the podcast Everything is Fine . At 15:40, the hosts and guest Julie Lithcott-Haims begin to discuss the final lines of Oliver’s poem:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Their conversation nudged me to reflect, so I sat down for one of my favorite exercises. It’s quick and easy: I simply timed myself for 2 minutes of free association with several of the key words…then I sat back to observe my thoughts.

And I realized something important.

I’ve been thinking of life as a resource that I have and that I’m supposed to use well. However, life is not “have-able” at all. It is mysterious, unknowable, uncontainable, unpredictable, exciting, and sometimes even dangerous.

This is a huge shift, for me at least. I have spent significant energy trying to exert control over my life. It’s an understandable impulse, and very human. However, the futility of that control, and the ways I’ve pegged my self-worth to it…well, that just makes my heart ache.

We were never meant to tame life, to possess it, or to get it “right.” Instead, let’s engage. Let’s move with life. Some days that will look like play, or a dance. On hard days, it will feel like a brutal fight. It isn’t all rosy, but it’s real—and powerful.

Wild and precious.

What do these words evoke for you?

*Thank you to DI for the podcast rec! 🙏🏼