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Your worth was never something you had to earn. We all need a reminder of that sometimes. So, here's yours today. You're listening to Relish, the podcast for people ready to stop chasing self-improvement and start savoring their lives. If you're tired of the hamster wheel of healing and hungry for more joy, presence, and meaning, you're in the right place. Hey friends, it's Alysia and welcome back to Relish. Today's quick bite episode is going to be a little bit different. I thought that I would share a poem with you, one that resonates with me and my thoughts on it. So, we're going to get right into it. I'm going to start by just reading that poem to you first. Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a 100 miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, the world goes on. Meanwhile, the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile, the wild geese high in the clean blue air are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination.
Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting over and over, announcing your place in the family of things. I love this poem. And I want to start by acknowledging upfront that uh entire thesis have been written about this poem. People of course study Mary Oliver's work for years and write about it. So I'm not trying to, you know, analyze or interpret it in a literary sense. I'm just sharing a poem that's moved me, one that feels deeply aligned with why I make this podcast and with the heart of the work that we've been doing here together. So, I wanted to walk through a few of the lines that feel especially relevant uh to anyone who's on a path of growth or healing, which of course is all of us here. You do not have to be
good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a 100 miles through the desert repenting. So many people who care about self-improvement, they carry this belief that they need to be better. They need to be more disciplined. They need to fix something. They need to earn their enoughness. And this line really cuts through that. You don't have to be good to be worthy. You don't have to suffer first. You don't have to earn your right to exist. Being human is hard enough and we don't need to add moral perfection on top of it. And this pressure is always here, but I find it's really intensified during the holidays, at least for me, you know. So ask yourself, are you being
hard on yourself right now about yourself, about navigating your family, about your body, about your finances, about what you did not get done this year, setting some lofty goals for the next year. just kind of notice any um hustling for your worthiness. What if you weren't? And then the line, you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. This is embodiment. This is permission to be human. Not perfect, not impressive, not morally righteous, just existing in a body with needs, with desires and instincts and truth. And this is really everything that we talk about here. Listening to yourself,
your signals, your body, letting yourself want what you want and honoring the body in the vessel that you're in. It's a really tender line, but also I see it as a kind of radical one. It invites you out of self-monitoring and back into trusting yourself, listening to your instincts, and letting go of the external demands. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. For me, this is shared humanity. To me, it's saying you don't have to hide your pain to belong. You don't have to perform strength or hide your vulnerability or be the one who holds it all together all the time. There's room for your despair here and there's room for mine. And it reminds us too, at
least it reminds me that connection, it doesn't come from being good. And isn't that true? I mean, at least for me, when I feel connected to someone, it's not because I feel connected to how perfect that person is, it's more often because they have been honest and vulnerable about something hard that they've gone through or a struggle. They've been honest about being human and how hard that is. And that's what really makes us feel connected and not alone. So, we don't have to hide that vulnerability. We need to share it. And then meanwhile, the world goes on. I love this line. so much uh while spiraling in self- judgment or trying to fix ourselves or wrestling with our despair. There the
world is continuing on, you know, not in a minimizing kind of way, but a grounding way. It brings me back to presence and to the larger picture and reminds me that this moment isn't everything, you know, it's beyond me. It gets me out of my selfing. And then there's more life available. There's another breath, another sunrise, another chance. There's space for your struggle. And there's a life beyond it, too. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely that line, to me, it feels like the feeling of a hand resting on my back. Whoever you are, not who you think you should be, not your best self or a perfected version of you, just you as you are. No matter how lonely
because loneliness does not mean unworthiness. This is belonging. You belong not by earning it, just by being. You belong and you're enough as you are. The world offers itself to your imagination, announcing your place in the family of things. This is where the poem becomes a homecoming, calling you back to your imagination, your inner compass, your aliveness. It calls you back to your place. Not the place that you perform into. Not this perfected mask that you might feel like you have to be, but a place that was already yours. It was always yours. That light within you that you really are. And this is the heart of my mission with Relish.
You do not have to try so hard to be enough. You already belong. You are a part of something bigger. Your being matters more than you're doing. And in that family of things, you have a place and you do belong here. And I'm so glad you're here. And the world, I believe, is better because you're in it. Your light matters. And the ripple effect that you have matters. So I want to read it just one more time. Not to analyze it. Just let it kind of wash over you. So just take a breath and notice how it feels to receive this. You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a 100 miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, the world goes on. Meanwhile, the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile, the wild geese high in the clean blue air are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination. calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting, over and over, announcing your place in
the family of things. Thank you. If someone that you love could use this reminder that they don't have to be good or earn their worth or walk on their knees through the desert, send this episode their way. And if this episode resonated, I appreciate you following the show, downloading the show. This is really important um for us growing and leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcast and Spotify. It helps more than anything with us growing and I'm so grateful for your support. Please call in, drop me um a voicemail on our hotline or an email if this episode resonated and if you want more like this. I'm really grateful you're here and I'll see you next time.
