“The most regretful people on earth are…”

Mary Oliver offers some words for creatives to reflect on.

Mary Oliver is a treasure and one of my favorite poets. Here she speaks a fundamental truth: If you have discovered your bliss — in this case “creative power” — and you choose NOT to follow it, give it “neither power nor time,” that is a path which almost assuredly will lead to regret.

I resonate with this deeply. In the last year of my master’s program at Yale, I confided with friends and faculty that I was experiencing this precise inner dynamic: If I continued my path toward a doctorate, then a lifetime as an academic, I would forever regret not having pursued my creativity (at that time, as a musician, singer, and songwriter).

Indeed, I had a stark image which haunted me which I don’t think I’ve ever shared here.

It is night. I am reclined in a chair. At my expansive wooden desk. Its surface covered with academic books. A single light one of those green banker’s lamps. The dim light reveals my study. Hardwood floors. An oriental rug. Comfortable plush chairs. And floor to ceiling bookcases filled with gorgeous first edition tomes, many of them written in Greek, Latin, German, languages of my chosen academic profession.

But I’m not gazing at my comfortable room. My leather-bound books. My well-appointed desk. Rather my eyes have drifted toward a shadowy corner. There leaning against the wall is a guitar case. Covered with dust. Unopened for some length of time.

And as I stare at the guitar case, I have an overwhelming sense of sadness of what might have been, an alternate life I might have chosen, but did not.

And I am filled with… regret.

The creative life is a challenging one. The only guarantee is it is a struggle, not only somehow managing to cobble together what we euphemistically call “a living,” but also doing daily battle with all that goes with attempting to wrangle magic out of our imaginations into something resembling a story or a piece of art.

But if you are touched by your own “creative power”, and you give it time and focus, then you are following your bliss.

And THAT is a path toward a truly authentic life.

For more about the poetry of Mary Oliver, go here.

For a treasure trove of writers’ wisdom, check out AdviceToWriters.