So, I've had this poem by Robert Bly hanging above my desk for about 3.5 years now. It's from a magazine and the "headline" on the page was LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE. Seems like a good plan for 2009! I think I've kept it for so long because the picture makes me laugh (Inge Morath's "A Llama in Times Square", 1957) but also because the poem has a great message. The poem itself makes me giggle because of the pictures it creates in my mind. And I will admit, it's a little "out there" in some of the lines. But mostly I hear the following messages: don't being afraid of what life has to offer you, don't run away from something because it's unknown or doesn't look like what you expected, find a "gift" in everything you are given, and give yourself a break every once in a while!
THINGS TO THINK
Think in ways you've never thought before,
if the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you've ever heard.
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.
Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged, or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he's carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you've never seen.
When someone knocks on the door, think that he's about
To give you something large: tell you you're forgiven,
Or that it's not necessary to work all the time, or that it's
Been decided that if you lie down no one will die.
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