Me, Mary Oliver and the Unraveling

I read this post a few days ago and it won’t leave me. The idea of finding your voice and owning your truth is something that has really begun to take root in my heart and soul. The possibilities that are open to us when we really own our voice and the price we, unwittingly, pay when our voice and our truth belong to someone else.

“…there was a new voice, which you slowly recognized as your own”

I recently started giving some real thought to the core values that guide my life. I’m not sure that I had ever taken the time to put them into words. I know I have values, we all do, but I never took the time to really articulate them. This is actually still a work in progress but one of the things that has quickly become evident is how important truth-telling is to me. No matter how the rest of my list pans out, I know that truth telling will be at the top of the list.

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

The ironic thing is I’ve spent the last year or so trying to figure out my personal truth. I’ve spent so much of my life doing what was expected of me that I never stopped to actually figure out what I really wanted out of my life. I don’t know if it was turning 40 that did it but I realized that I’m only going to get one shot at this life. This isn’t a dress rehearsal, this is the real thing and I need to get to living this one wild and precious life that I have been given.

“…and when the time comes to let it go, let it go” 

In this last year, I’ve been awakening to my heart and listening more intently to what she has to say. As I am listening, I am discovering that there are pieces to my life that are no longer true for me. There was a time when they were but they no longer fit. Like an old shoe that I’ve outgrown, truths that once governed my life now feel forced and uncomfortable and I find my heart begging me to let them go; to throw them off and embrace a more honest truthful existence. But letting go of those old truths is not easy. It means letting go of much of what has defined my life and it feels very much like my life is unraveling in the letting go.

But a beautiful thing is happening in the midst of this unraveling. I’m unraveling into my truth. I’m discovering the things that feel true and real and right for me and who I am. Who I truly am not who other people think I am but who I am discovering myself to be. I’m discovering my truths and in the process of owning those truths, I’m finding my voice. A better way to say it is I am rescuing my voice from other people. This is not easy work but it is necessary work.

“Listen – – are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life” 

We all have unique gifts to offer the world. We owe it to ourselves and to the God who created us, to discover what those unique gifts are and then boldly offer them up to the world around us. Never backing down under the weight of other people’s expectations, never cowering in the face of fears or insecurities, never giving in to the lies that whisper we are not good enough. We are more than enough and we must rise into the best versions of ourselves possible because this is only shot we get. I’m finding my voice, owning my truth, and becoming the best version of myself possible.

Read this poem called The Journey by Mary Oliver and then let me know in the comments section if you’re ready to embark on this epic journey of discovery with me 🙂 Or if you’ve already taken it, I’d love to hear more about your experiences in shaking off the old, in order to embrace the new. Please share away!

All quotes are taken from the works of Mary Oliver. She is amazing! If you’ve never read her stuff,  you owe it to yourself to go look her up right now. I promise you will not be sorry.