The Admirable Energies of the World

From Mary Oliver’s “Upstream,” a book of essays:

“You must not ever stop being whimsical.

“And you must not, ever, give someone else the responsibility for your life.

“I don’t mean it’s easy or assured; there are the stubborn stumps of shame, grief that remains unsolvable after all these years, a bag of stones that goes with one wherever one goes and however the hour may call for dancing and for light feet.

“But there is, also, the summoning world, the admirable energies of the world, better than anger, better than bitterness and, because more interesting, more alleviating. And there is the thing that one does, the needle one plies, the work, and within that work a chance to take thoughts that are hot and formless and to place them slowly and with meticulous effort into some shapely heat-retaining form…”