The Journey: A poem by Mary Oliver

    One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
 though the voices around you
            kept shouting
        their bad advice --
    though the whole house
       began to tremble
   and you felt the old tug
           at your ankles
          "Mend my life!"
          each voice cried.
        But you didn't stop.
 You knew what you had to do,
        though the wind pried
          with its stiff fingers
      at the very foundations,
      though their melancholy
              was terrible.
         It was already late
      enough, and a wild night,
    and the road full of fallen
        branches and stones.
         But little by little,
 as you left their voices behind,
       the stars began to burn
  through the sheets of clouds,
     and there was a new voice
            which you slowly
       recognized as your own,
        that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
              into the world,
             determined to do
  the only thing you could do --
           determined to save
   the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver

courtesy of -www.panhala.net/Archive/The_Journey.html

The poem was referred to by Maria Shriver recently in regard to her marital and family breakup. But I also have adopted it for my own struggles. It speaks out what those of us who want to transition feel. I have only known about it for the last week, but it is a keeper!