# Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darknes... | Mary Oliver Quote

> Source: https://positivity.org/quotes/quote-mary-oliver-someone-i-loved-once-gave

> Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

## What This Quote Means

Every hardship we survive adds to our reservoir of inner strength.

## About Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet known for her clear, accessible poems about nature and the spiritual world.

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was a poet who found spiritual truth in close observation of the natural world and shared it in clear, luminous verse.

## How to Apply This Wisdom

### Adversity training

View current challenges as exercises that build your resilience muscle.

### Support network

Strengthen your relationships so you have support during difficult times.

### Self-care

Maintain your physical and mental health as the foundation of resilience.

## Reflection Questions

- What is my greatest source of inner strength?

- How have past difficulties prepared me for current challenges?

- What would it take to bounce back stronger from my current situation?

## More Quotes by Mary Oliver

> Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

> Attention is the beginning of devotion.

> Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

> Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.

> You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.