Tag: Red Bird

Love sorrow. She is yours now, and you must
take care of what has been
given. Brush her hair, help her
into her little coat, hold her hand,
especially when crossing the street. For, think,

what if you should lose her? Then you would be
sorrow yourself; her drawn face, her sleeplessness
would be yours. Take care, touch
her forhead that she feel herself not so

utterly alone. And smile, that she does not
altogether forget the world before the lesson.
Have patience in abundance. And do not
ever lie or ever leave her even for a moment

by herself, which is to say, possibly, again,
abandoned. She is strange, mute, difficult,
sometimes unmanageable but, remember, she is a child.
And amazing things can happen. And you may see,

as the two of you go
walking together in the morning light, how
little by little she relaxes; she looks about her;
she begins to grow.
Mary Oliver

I love how she writes about sorrow as being a child, a part of you to love
and care for, instead of trying to shove it away, or change it somehow, rather bring it along gently and with patience and understanding.

I believe each of our emotions would be better treated this way.
To walk along with each allowing them to express themselves as need be.
Until they grow into wisdom of lifes experience.

Thanks Mary Oliver for expressing sorrow in these words.