Wild Geese

Every Sunday evening, the cathedral holds an Eventide service. It is a more contemplative service and it has become a time for me to center myself. A time to reflect on the past week and look forward to the week to come. But more so, it is a time to be with God and think about things a little differently.

That being said, this service is a little different. More interactive with less ‘bells and whistles.’ Perhaps my favorite part is the first reading. And no, it is not from the common lectionary. It is usually a poem that Canon Mary pointed out could have been a part of the Bible, maybe, if we continued to add to it. The three times that I have been to Eventide, these poems have spoken to me and so, I would like to share this one with you.

Wild Geese – Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in clean blue air, are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –

over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

The world offers itself to your imagination. What is your place in the family of things?