Mary Oliver Tapestries

I have rarely identified with and found comfort in the writings of a person in the way I do with the work of Mary Oliver. She reminds me not just to ground myself in my body, but also in the world. To look around and notice my environment and my relationship with the other creatures in that same environment. She connects me with a younger version of myself. The version who would wander through the woods, joyfully get lost, search out all the interesting and strange dried out plants each autumn with the hopes of making some kind of strange, sculptural masterpiece. The version who sat in a field, holding onto a notebook, trying to write down all the things she noticed around her. The small spider jumping in the grass. The birds swarming ...

I want to live fully, joyfully and in the moment. I want to hold time and space for all the feelings and experiences and relationships with kind, creative, loving people.⁠ "Tell me what is you plant to do with your one wild & precious life?" - Mary Oliver⁠ it's not insignificant that I made this drawing while my life was very much in chaos, as I talked to my new partner on the phone, rediscovering a joy of drawing. We talked and drew and cultivated a new life.

Poet Mary Oliver, winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, once wrote, "Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." White Background and Border

I have struggled for a few days to settle on what to write for this piece. What did I have to say about the words of Mary Oliver? This morning I looked out at the quiet park through my front window, and I thought about the strange and beautiful trajectory my life has taken.⁠ But why strange? I think that is what this line means to me. I want to be improbable. Improbable? Improbable when compared to my past self, my past lives, the limitations I accepted both from myself and from others. I want grace and joy and freedom. I want wings.⁠

inspired by the words of mary oliver <3

Poet Mary Oliver, winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, once wrote, "Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."

inspired by Mary Oliver's words <3

inspired by the words of mary oliver <3

Wild Geese, Mary Oliver Bumper Sticker

lately I have been reflecting on how a little over two years ago I would not have recognized my life as it is now. how strange it is to find myself here, and now. in some ways how strange to still be here at all. there is a mix of gratitude and privilege and wonder and beauty in all of that. . it is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world - mary oliver {from her poem, Invitation}

a gentle call to be present, in the moment, in our environment, to take it in and exhale through a lens of tenderness. 'Breathe it all in, love it all out.' - Mary Oliver

Mary Jane Oliver quote: Stay young, always, in the theater of your mind.

Mary Jane Oliver quote: Stay young, always, in the theater of your mind.

St. Paul's Cathedral