Jeg fortsætter med temaet fra i går om at skabe forandringer i sit liv. Til Nytårskuren læste jeg et af mine yndlingsdigte, som netop handler om forandring. Det vil jeg gerne dele her.
Digtet handler om en kvinde, som alt for længe har lyttet til alle de stemmer, der har lydt rundt om hende, som fortalte hende, hvordan og for hvem hun burde leve sit liv. Så en dag – lige pludselig en dag – lytter hun til sin egen stemme og går ud i verden, fast besluttet på at redde det eneste liv, hun kan redde: sit eget.
Digtet er ikke nødvendigvis en opfordring til at stikke af hjemmefra, men en opfordring til at lytte til sin stemme og begynde rejsen mod det liv, man gerne vil have.
The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
(Mary Oliver, 1986)
