Ever wake up on the self-pity side of the bed? Me too! Here’s a poetic antidote from Mary Oliver, who’s often able to find in nature a cure for what ails us human types.
If you don’t have a good waterfall in your neighborhood — one with a cave behind it where you can follow Mary’s advice — a walk in the woods or a park might do.
Or maybe hearing a bird sing its heart out, or listening to great music, or viewing great art, or watching a child at play and, better yet, joining in!
As Rumi says, “There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

The Poet with His Face in His Hands
by Mary Oliver

You want to cry aloud for your
mistakes. But to tell the truth the world
doesn’t need any more of that sound.

(Excerpted from New and Selected Poems: Volume Two. Read the full poem here.)