The Vajra Parrot Squawks!

Another fantastic poem (and the last, I promise) from Mary Oliver, with a message applicable to all of us.

It's true: if you make someone happy, then you bring out their best qualities with little effort, qualities that are there even in the darkest and most brooding of those around us. Even in people like me.

Who knows, the happiness of the music you make and share with the world around you could make a substantial difference to the lives of many and, by extension, to your own life because what goes around comes around. Why not put your problems on the back burner for a little while and make an effort to make someone else happy? :-)

All the quick notes
Mozart didn’t have time to use
before he entered the cloud-boat
are falling now from the beaks
of the finches
that have gathered from the joyous summer
into the hard winter
and, like Mozart, they speak of nothing
but light and delight,
though it is true, the heavy blades of the world
are still pounding underneath.

And this is what you can do too, maybe,
if you live simply and with a lyrical heart
in the cumbered neighborhoods or even,
as Mozart sometimes managed to, in a palace,
offering tune after tune after tune,
making some hard-hearted prince
prudent and kind, just by being happy.