Oct 22, 2015 / Inspiration

Running Wild

When writing inspires us to find our place in the world.

While Mary Oliver is a well-known poet — in fact, we’ve quoted her before on the Daily Post — she’s still new to me. By sheer coincidence, her famous poem, “Wild Geese,” popped up in my inbox, blog reader, and Twitter feed multiple times over the past few months. Perhaps it was one of those seeming proofs of collective consciousness, but as I kept re-reading her words, I fell in love more deeply with the poem.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
– Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

I’m also working my way through Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, a collection of folk tales that explore womanhood, intuition, and our relationship to nature from a Jungian perspective. I revisited “Wild Geese” after reading the chapter on “The Ugly Duckling,” that famed story about a young swan born into the wrong family and struggling to find his place in the world – and, subsequently, his self-worth.

Works like these emphasize feelings of otherness, inadequacy, and isolation, as well as our determination to move past these feelings to find where we belong. Today, take inspiration from Mary Oliver and tell us, what is your place in the family of things? If you are lonely, do you hear the wild geese? If you are surrounded by your metaphorical kin, how have you announced your place in the world?

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  1. Such a great analyzation of Mary Oliver’s work. It is healthy, I think, to realize that we are indeed alone. But how do we find our place? Through writing, maybe? Does writing allow us to make a place for ourselves in the world? I sure think so. It gives us a voice, an opinion, a presence.

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  5. Every person has to find their own inner self. Then they will know where they want their place to be in the world. Doing the things that they are passionate about.

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  8. Hi there, this really forces me to think more intently: I am at the moment reading Stephen King on Writing: and the one rule he applies is Read a Lot Write a lot and thank you for your post. Best regards Lorry

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  11. Hello, my name is Samina and I just started blogging last week! I have some content and I would love it if you could stop by and check me out and like my page! I’m a 23 year old young adult living with spina bifida and my blog is about the things I go through daily living with this defect. My life is a crazy roller coaster ride and I would like to take you guys along with me on this ride in hopes that maybe someone somewhere can gain some motivation and positivity. I would like to teach my readers not to give any type of pain or problem the power to become an obstacle also, that you have the power to do anything you want to do if you just put your mind into it. Thanks for your time!

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  13. Well written. Will soon be tackling how Design, specifically Architecture can be used to solve some health problems. Cos majority of the time of individuals is spent in and around buildings. Urbanization has taken over. And the contraction of diseases are on the increase…….

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