In Search of a Mission

September 18, 2016 by seabluelee 29 Comments

Finding Myself

I am in the midst of Susannah Conway’s Blogging from the Heart course, and one of the first assignments was to write a mission statement for my blog. I have been stumped, pondering on this for almost two weeks. I wrote a lot of notes about the why, what, and how of my blogging. But I couldn’t seem to make it coalesce into a sentence or two that sounded anything like a “mission statement,” a phrase that has ponderous and corporate overtones in my mind.

Then, yesterday. Yesterday I found it — by accident, synchronicity, coincidence, or providence, depending upon your point of view. I found it posted on the Facebook page of the poet Mary Oliver.

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
~ Mary Oliver, Sometimes (from Red Bird)

In these uncertain and often fearful times, it seems more important than ever to seek out the good, the beautiful, the curious, and the awe-inspiring in the world around us, and to notice even tiny things that astonish and amaze us. To embrace life and our fellow beings on this vast yet small planet with grace and kindness. To share our discoveries and our delight with others, so they might experience it, too.

And so there it is, my mission statement: I will pay attention, be astonished, and tell about it. That sums it up in a nutshell — the reason I take the photographs I do, the reason I write about them, the reason I press “publish” on this blog.

Thank you, Mary Oliver.