I try to be good but sometimes a person just has to break out and act like the wild and springy thing one used to be. It's impossible not to remember wild an want it back.
Mary OliverRead
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Paying attention is a crucial and ongoing task in life.
Mary Oliver emphasizes the importance of attention and mindfulness in our lives. By stating that paying attention is our 'endless and proper work,' she suggests that truly engaging with the world around us is both a lifelong pursuit and a foundational aspect of living meaningfully.
Themes
AttentionMindfulnessAwarenessPresenceLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about living fully, someone might say, 'As Mary Oliver wisely noted, to pay attention is our endless and proper work.'
More from Mary Oliver
All quotes βAt the time I was growing up, literature was involved with the so-called confessional poets. And I was not interested in that. I did not think that specific and personal perspective functioned well for the reader at all.
Mary OliverRead
I know the sag of the unfinished poem. And I know the release of the poem that is finished.
Mary OliverRead
For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.
Mary OliverRead
If I have any lasting worth, it will be because I have tried to make people remember what the Earth is meant to look like.
Mary OliverRead
Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.
Mary OliverRead
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