Monday Morning Wake-Up Call: A Passion for Work

~ Live & Learn

 

mary-oliver-cdt-rachel-giese-brown

In books: truth, and daring, passion of all sorts. Clear and sweet and savory emotion did not run in a rippling stream in my personal world— more pity to it! But in stories and poems I found passion unfettered, and healthy. Not that such feelings were always or even commonly found in their clearest, most delectable states in all the books I read. Not at all! I saw what skill was needed, and persistence— how one must bend one’s spine, like a hoop, over the page— the long labor. I saw the difference between doing nothing, or doing a little, and the redemptive act of true effort. Reading, then writing, then desiring to write well, shaped in me that most joyful of circumstances— a passion for work.

~ Mary Oliver, from “Staying Alive” in Upstream, Selected Essays

Notes:

12 thoughts on “Monday Morning Wake-Up Call: A Passion for Work”

    2. And agree that finding one’s calling can be all that Debi. And your comment reminds me of William Stafford’s thinking on the topic:

      I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don’t have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along.

      – William Stafford, An Interview with William Stafford (February, 1971)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply