Episode 24: Wild Geese | A Different Kind of Reminder – Quick Bite

The holidays can stir up pressure—pressure to be good, be grateful, be cheerful, be productive, be perfect. But beneath all the striving, there’s a deeper truth: your worth was never something you had to earn.

In this tender Quick Bite episode, Alyssia Sheikh shares Mary Oliver’s beloved poem Wild Geese and explores how its lines speak directly to anyone walking a healing or growth path. This isn’t a literary analysis—it’s a heartfelt reflection on what the poem reveals about self-compassion, embodiment, shared humanity, and belonging.

You’ll hear how the poem invites you out of self-judgment and into presence, out of performance and into authenticity. It reminds you that your “soft animal” body carries wisdom, that despair doesn’t make you unworthy, and that the world still moves, still calls you, still holds a place for you.

✨ In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why you don’t have to “earn” your worthiness
• What it means to “let the soft animal of your body love what it loves”
• How shared humanity dissolves shame and loneliness
• A grounding way to hold despair without collapsing into it
• How belonging doesn’t come from perfection—but presence

💭 Reflection:
What if you didn’t have to be good—only human? What if your belonging didn’t depend on performance? What if you could trust your body’s quiet signals more than the world’s loud expectations?

This poem is your reminder: you already belong.

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• The Hoffman Institute (Alyssia is a Hoffman Process teacher; podcast is not affiliated)

Relevant Episodes: 

• Quick Bite: Lost or Disconnected
• Entreé: Compassion in Action
• Entreé: Feel to Know (Science of Emotions)

Relevant Links & Resources:

• Mary Oliver: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-oliver 
• Devotions book of poetry (Mary Oliver): https://amzn.to/48ogU4T