What will you do with your one wild and precious life? - a poem & a thought
I was helping my friend move house last month and while we obsessed over the possibilities of how they may be able to achieve an ultra-glam, ultra-dreamy baroque fantasy withtheir interior, we started talking about our goals for the coming year and beyond. The conversation took its many twists and turns, meandering through my screams (some would say screeches) of excitement and us bonding over the struggle we've both endured and conquered to get where we are.
"We really are doing the damn thing and I'm so proud of us!" they said to me as we smoked on their balcony.
"We really are doing the damn thing. I'm so proud of us.", I then thought quietly to myself...
In our conversation, during moving things around to create space for possibly the most ornate sofa that Roman Road and its residents had ever seen, they picked up a book by Mary Oliver and told me about her writing. I wasn't too familiar but when they spoke to me about 'The Summer Day' arguably one of her most famous works, something hit me. Specifically, the question - 'Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'.
The question moved me.
And in being moved, I chose to respond.
What will you do with your one wild and precious life?
What will I do?
What will I do?
With my one wild and precious life I will love
Unashamedly
Unapologetically
Fearlessly whoever I so choose
However many I feel love flow through
However far that love may take me
I will let it
For I am free
With my one wild and precious life
I will feel
The dizzying heights
The crushing lows
The adrenaline rushes through laughter and excitement
And also from life’s deafening blows
I will run
To whatever corner of the Earth calls
Whatever natural wonder I can find
Be that in person or
In my mind
I will imagine
Dream up colours, animals, angels and demons
It’s my life - I need no rhyme or reason
I will wail
Into the wind
Scream at God should I feel to
Question His moves in my life
Question my existence and that of you
I will have those conversations
The ones that make us squirm
Ask why you stopped me when all I wanted was to learn
Ask why you hit me when all I needed was a word
Ask why you’ve conveniently forgotten the damages incurred
On my body
My psyche
My soul
With my one precious life -
I will be honest
With myself and all around
So I am remembered as
Authentic, Loving, Kind, Inquisitive, Funny
ME
When I am laid to final rest in the ground
--
D. x