Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver

It was a joy reading Upstream by Mary Oliver. Here are a few quotes and phrases from the book that I want to keep remembering.

"you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life"

"I quickly found for myself two such blessings- the natural world, and the world of writing: literature. These were the gates through which I vanished from a difficult place."

"Reading, then writing, then desiring to write well, shaped in me that most joyful of circumstances- a passion for work."

"..having chosen to claim my life, I have made for myself, out of work and love, a handsome life"

"And that I did not give to anyone the responsibility for my life. It is mine. I made it. And can do what I want to with it. Live it. Give it back, someday, without bitterness, to the wild and weedy dunes."

"Creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration, without interruptions. It needs the whole sky to fly in, and no eye watching until it comes to that certainty which it aspires to, but does not necessarily have at once. Privacy, then. A place apart- to pace, to chew pencils, to scribble and erase and scribble again."

"in art as in spiritual life there is no neutral place. Especially at the beginning, there is a need of discipline as well as solitude and concentration."

"creative work requires a loyalty as complete as the loyalty of water to the force of gravity"

"The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time."

"Thus the great ones (my great ones, who may not be the same as your great ones) have taught me- to observe with passion, to think with patience, to live always caringly."

"Writing that loses its elegance loses its significance."

"But literature, the best of it, does not aim to be literature. It wants and strives, beyond that artifact part of itself, to be a true part of the composite human record- that is, not words but a reality."💟

"In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us."

"soul-waking and world-shifting experience"

"For me it was important to be alone; solitude was a prerequisite to being openly and joyfully susceptible and responsive to the world of leaves, light, birdsong, flowers, flowing water."

"I could tell many more stories about Sammy- they're endless. But I'll just tell you the unexpected, joyful conclusion. The dog officer resigned! And the next officer was a different sort; he too remembered and missed the old days. So when he found Sammy he would simply call him into his truck and drive him home. In this way, he lived a long and happy life, with many friends." [😊a happy story]

"I don't think I am old yet, or done with growing. But my perspective has altered- I am less hungry for the busyness of the body, more interested in the tricks of the mind."

"Give me a fish, I eat for a day: teach me to fish, I eat for a lifetime." FISHERMAN'S MOTTO

"A town cannot live on dreams. The change was slow but harsh. The young men and women, boys and girls left to find work and to build another life. And the town became, not all at once but steadily, a town of pleasure. People swarmed in on weekends, and they still do. And it will no doubt go on. And there is no blame in this. The town had to find another way to live."