Friday reflection

Happy New Year edition

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

Happy new year, everyone!

Welcome to this week’s Friday reflection.

This week’s quote

This week’s quote comes from poet Mary Oliver, with thanks to subscriber and friend Michelle Hynes, who, by the way, if you are working to create social change, is the strategic partner you want by your side, because she just has a way of making everything smarter and better. Michelle heard this quote in in yoga class, shared it on LinkedIn, and now, here it is, in your inbox.

"Today is a day like any other: twenty-four hours, a little sunshine, a little rain.

Listen, says ambition, nervously shifting her weight from one boot to another—why don’t you get going?

For there I am, in the mossy shadows, under the trees.

And to tell the truth I don’t want to let go of the wrists of idleness,

I don’t want to sell my life for money,

I don’t even want to come in out of the rain."

- From Mary Oliver’s “Black Oaks” (read the full poem)

Question for reflection

This quote feels so perfect to me for this moment, when the determination and ambition of a new year are swirling all around us (the things we will do! the ways we will make this year better!) — and yet, with all we’ve been through, and all we continue to bear, there is, in me at least, also a voice that asks:

…What if we didn’t? (…do all the things, launch all the projects, scale up and expand in all the ways)

What if it was ok to turn from ambition to idleness? (…to shift our focus from doing, to being)

Truly: What then?

What might happen?

Would we still be enough?

I’d love to hear what this quote and these questions bring up for you.