I am currently reading Mary Oliver’s collection of essays titled Upstream. They are about nature and creativity and claiming responsibility for this precious life you’ve been given.
In an early essay in the book called “Staying Alive,” Oliver says,
You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.
Mary Oliver
She drives this point home in another essay called, “Power and Time.” According to Oliver, creatives must spend their time not on the ordinary, the everyday. Our focus must be the extraordinary; we must be open and ready to catch moments of inspiration as they come. We must avoid the distractions of the world, and, most importantly, the distractions of our own minds.
Oliver says that when she is paying attention to her creative work, “My responsibility is not to the ordinary or the timely… My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive. The most regretful people on Earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power or time.”
That line hit me hard. I have not always been good about attending to my creative power. Thank you, Ms. Oliver, for reminding me to do so.
Have a great weekend and please give power and time to your creativity!
Thanks for getting nerdy with me!
“The most regretful people on Earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power or time.” – a wonderful quote 🙂
I love Mary Oliver’s work, particularly the poem Wild Geese, which I memorized as a late teen. I was reading a lot of environmental stuff at the time (Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire and such) and just felt a connection to certain words. I’ll have to read the collection of essays you mentioned! Thanks for the post 🙂