A Community of Swans

Last year when I came upon a beautiful translation of Hans Christian Anderson's story "The Ugly Duckling" I found myself moved, entranced and inspired.  I related to the longing to be a part of such a beautiful bevy:

      The birds uttered a very strange cry as they unfurled their magnificent wings.  He craned his neck to follow their course, and gave a cry so shrill and strange that he frightened himself. Oh! He could not forget them – those splendid happy birds. He did not know what birds they were or whither they were bound, yet he 

loved them more than anything he had ever loved before. 

   *                                   *                                      *

     Before he quite knew what was happening, he found himself in a great garden where apple trees bloomed. The lilacs filled the air with sweet scent and hung in clusters from long green branches that bent overa winding stream.  Oh, but it was lovely here in the freshness of spring!

     From the thicket before him came three lovely white swans.  They ruffled their feathers and swam lightly in the stream.  He flew into the water and swam toward the splendid swans. They saw him and swept down upon him with the rustling feathers raised. "Kill me!" said the poor creature, and he bowed his head down over the water to wait for death. But what did he see there, mirrored in the clear stream? He beheld his own image, and it was no longer the reflection of a clumsy, dirty, gray bird, ugly and offensive.  He himself 

     was a swan!  

He felt quite glad that he had come through so much trouble and misfortune, for now he had a fuller understanding of his own good fortune and of beauty when he met with it. The great swans swam all around him and stroked him with their bills.

          *                     *                     *                      *

The story inspired me to try to create my own Community of Swans through a blog! 

• A place where we can support each other into what is wanting to unfold in each of us.
• A place where we can encourage each other to unfurl our unique visions and passions and offer them to each other and to the world.
• A place where we can share meaningful and inspiring quotes and books that are helping us along this journey.

So I am sending this blog out to a few of you.....feel free to invite others whom you think might be interested in joining in the conversation, or even just dropping in occasionally:)

THE SWAN

Across the wide waters
     
something comes
          
floating—a slim
             
and delicate



ship, filled
     
with white flowers—
          
and it moves
             
on its miraculous muscles



as though time didn’t exist,
     
as though bringing such gifts
          
to the dry shore
             
was a happiness



almost beyond bearing.
     
And now it turns its dark eyes,
          
it rearranges
             
the clouds of its wings,



it trails
     
an elaborate webbed foot,
          
the color of charcoal.
             
Soon it will be here.



Oh, what shall I do
     
when that poppy-colored beak
          
rests in my hand?
             
Said Mrs. Blake of the poet:



I miss my husband’s company—
     
he is so often
         
in paradise.
            
Of course! the path to heaven



doesn’t lie down in flat miles.
     
It’s in the imagination
          
with which you perceive
             
this world,



and the gestures
     
with which you honor it.
          
Oh, what will I do, what will I say, when those
             
white wings
           
touch the shore?

Mary (of course) Oliver

Rilke for the new year!