Devotions with Mary Oliver: 'Don't Hesitate'.

61)Īdvent Autumn Bird Birds Blackout Poetry Busyness Christ Christmas Colors Constellations Creek Death Easter Family Haiku Hope Joy Life Loss Love Marriage Mary Oliver Meditation Modern Morning Music National Poetry Month Nature Peace Photography Poem Poet Poetry Rest Shakespeare Song Sonnet Summer Tanka Tennyson The Guardian Time Villanelle Wendell Berry Winter Top Posts & Pages It could be anything,īut very likely you notice it in the instant

Something happens better than all the riches Is its way of fighting back, that sometimes Of lives and whole towns destroyed or about For “oy is not made to be a crumb.” Don’t Hesitate – Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,ĭon't hesitate. Let me encourage you to read Pastor Laurence’s post for Lent first, and then add to that Mary Oliver’s advice to give in to joy. But after reading the Madeline L’Engle post on My Pastoral Ponderings for Lent, I knew this was a companion piece. “I Own a House,” “I Worried,” and “Tides” all vied for tonight’s post. Even tonight, as I read a handful of her poems by streetlamp while waiting on the bridge to meet my daughter, I had a hard time narrowing down which poem to share with you for today’s devotion. I have been overwhelmed by the depth of wisdom in Oliver’s collection of poems all neatly gathered into one bound gem in Devotions. To refuse joy in times of trouble is to willingly starve in the midst of plenty, thereby depriving oneself of one of the core means of sustenance provided to enable us to persevere through such hardships. From what I’ve seen in my life and read in history, such times don’t truly exist. I don’t believe that we were made to only indulge in joy when everything arrives at some peaceful state of rest – “When the sun’s shining down on and world’s all as it should be,” to quote Matt Redman. How can I be joyful when… ? Such thinking isn’t worth a fig, to use the old idiom.

In hard times, I can see how someone might shun joy’s exuberant embrace.

Devotions by Mary Oliver