Wild Geese

The Friday Finance Break

(For anyone just tuning in, every Friday we take a break from the CFO content and talk about founder mental health. If you're just here for the CFO stuff, we'll see you Monday!)

This Friday, I'd like to share with you something I love.

A poem by an astonishing poet. One I turn to when I need a reminder

That no matter how tough this founder's journey feels,

No matter how bad my email debt guilt,

No matter how I felt about that last feedback I gave, pitch I pitched, or sale that I sold (or didn't),

That the beautiful world moves on.

And welcomes me to move on with it.

I'll let her words take it from here:

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred 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.

- Mary Oliver | Wild Geese | 1986

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