The butterfly’s loping flight
carries it through the country of the leaves…
for long delicious moments it is perfect
lazy, riding motionless in the breeze on the soft stalk
of some ordinary flower…
One or two things are all you need
to travel over the blue pond…
some deep
memory of pleasure, some cutting
knowledge of pain…
For years and years I struggled
just to love my life. And then
the butterfly
rose, weightless, in the wind.
“don’t love your life
too much,” it said,
and vanished into the world.
~Mary Oliver, from “One or Two Things” in Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
Notes: Poem – Thank you Make Believe Boutique. Photo: Photomarc by Marc Gijsbers
yes, one or two things are more than enough.
A lovely thought.
It is…
Is it possible to love life too much, when watching a butterfly dancing in the breeze?
I believe it is and should be. 😉
❤️
Too late, butterfly. I already love my life too much.
Smiling. It is so you to say just the right thing, and at such a higher level. LOVE THAT.
It’s just that I’m not a butterfly.
I’m a Woman!
Oh Boy.
Such effortless grace.
It is…
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Amazingly beautiful … this is the soothing beauty I need this morning!!
It is amazingly beautiful. So agree.
ah, that Mary Oliver always gets right down to it.
She really does. Right on the screws, every time.
I love this poem.
Hey Stranger! Hope you are doing well. Happy Holidays to you! Dave
Interesting… “don’t love your life too much…”
Wonder how much too much is?
I haven’t found it yet. 🙂
Me neither…
Oh-h Mary Oliver! Ah-h butterflies!
I’m back from Atlanta and their airport functioning again….
I don’t have your email address, but…
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“don’t love your life too much,”
Through metamorphosis the caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly. The caterpillar must die to itself to rise to the higher state of the butterfly.
God provides such validation in nature to impress upon us that death is not an end, but a transfiguration to a higher life. The quote from the poem rightly warns, don’t love you life too much. For in an unwillingness to let it go – in not dying to oneself – we cannot aspire nor attain the greater life intended for us.
-Alan
Deep Alan. I’m still thinking about it hours after I read your comment. Thank you.
Dave,
As the written word tells us much about the author, so, too, does nature tell us much, but not everything, about its author; namely God.
-Alan
-Alan
You are right there Alan, it does not…
Made me very nearly cry with the beauty and the perfect poem – I KNOW that the caterpillar has to ‘die’ to be able to transform into a butterfly – I think the question is not whether we love life too much (and some days there is not that much to love!) but whether we’re able to look beyond the moment (in life). Oh heck, I can’t put it into words – but anyway, it’s pure loveliness 🙂
You say you can’t put it into words. I say you’ve since an excellent job.