Devotions

Theme:

Devotions by Mary Oliver, explores the theme of nature: hummingbirds, waterfalls, owls, trees, the ocean, snakes, wild geese, storms, sand crabs and changing seasons, to name a few. But her poems also address larger themes like love, loss, joy, wonder and gratitude.

Famous Quotes:

“Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us.”

“Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.”

“Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers.”

“Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.”

“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

“How wonderful to be who I am, made out of earth and water, my own thoughts, my own fingerprints – all that glorious, temporary stuff.”

“I tell you this to break your heart, by which I mean only that it break open and never close again to the rest of the world.”

“There is only one question; how to love this world.”

“More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing—the reason they can fly.”

“And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away from wherever you are, to look for your soul?”

“Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul. But isn’t the return of spring and how it springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint?”

“And consider, always, every day, the determination of the grass to grow despite the unending obstacles.”

“I had believed something probably not true, yet it was wonderful to have believed it.”

“determined to do the only thing you could do— determined to save the only life you could save.”

“Why do I have so many thoughts, they are driving me crazy. Why am I always going anywhere, instead of somewhere?”

“Yes, a person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem. But first we must watch her as she stares down at her labor, which is dull enough.”

“how wonderful to be who I am, made out of earth and water, my own thoughts, my own fingerprints—”

Beautiful Lines:

“Don’t bother me. I’ve just been born.”

“Sometimes there are no rules.”

“Congratulations, if you have changed.”

“only if there are angels in your head will you ever, possibly, see one.”

“Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.”

“For the birds who own nothing—the reason they can fly.”

“I am not ready, nor worthy, I am climbing toward you.”

“I have refused to live locked in the orderly house of reasons and proofs.”

“am not ready, nor worthy, I am climbing toward you.”

“There was only myself and the world, and it was I who was leaving.”

“Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.”

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

“If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.”

“As I grew older the things I cared about grew fewer, but were more important.”

“I’ll just tell you this: only if there are angels in your head will you ever, possibly, see one.”