more wendell berry

i

Make a place to sit down.

Sit down. Be quiet.

You must depend upon

affection, reading, knowledge,

skill—more of each

than you have—inspiration,

work, growing older, patience,

for patience joins time

to eternity. Any readers

who like your poems,

doubt their judgment.


ii

Breathe with unconditional breath

the unconditioned air.

Shun electric wire.

Communicate slowly. Live

a three-dimensioned life;

stay away from screens.

Stay away from anything

that obscures the place it is in.

There are no unsacred places;

there are only sacred places

and desecrated places.

iii

Accept what comes from silence.

Make the best you can of it.

Of the little words that come

out of the silence, like prayers

prayed back to the one who prays,

make a poem that does not disturb

the silence from which it came.
 
-- Wendell Berry
 
so I'm reading a post on misswhistle and get to the bottom - it's more Wendell Berry. 
 
 "stay away from screens" yes this makes sense.  So again i need to consider turning off the tv.   of course this computer is a screen too.  Never thought of them as 'screens' between myself and the reality of the experience on this planet in this life.  Screens between myself and the experience of God?

nature

When despair for the world grows in me


and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

Ceara's picture

Some Mississippi school has decided to be so mean spirted that they won't acknowledge this girl's existence because she's a lesbian!  So because sexual orientation should not be any part of a school's business, I'll show my support and publish her picture. 

Pushing boundaries

I have had this brown silk shirt hanging in my closet for at least two years.  Possibly longer.  And I have never, ever worn it!  Finally I put it on with brown pants, brown belt (how boring).  Felt vaguely uncomfortable all day, but I must say looking at it here objectively it looks normal enough.

new shoes!

Went looking for shoes at lunch to day and fell in love!
Fluevog Barkerville in Purple, with two lace colours, purple or pale aqua.

olympics

I really thought I was on the side of "it's too expensive, waste of money, too commercial" etc. but I got totally caught up in the olympics. what a party, the atheletes such amazing feats, win or lose by 100ths of a second, and the fantastic canadian sportsmanship.

Plus the fans were having such a good time - Whistler was wild. Spontaneous singing of O Canada.

I was coming home excited to see who had won each day, and the Candian atheletes didn't let me down.

goodbye tv

they cut off the cable today. good, i think, although i still mindlessly headed for the tv when i got home. even though i had just read the notice from rogers in the mail box saying that it was gone. and now i'm on the computer.


but i do feel a glimmer of the possibilities waiting in the wings. my evenings could be filled with virtuous cleaning, improving my mind, getting to know my possessions (and therefore myself) and may-be even getting creative.

anything would be better than mainstream tv - that 'sugary' diet of constant 5 second clips, restless motionless movement, unreal emotions from fantasies, washing over me constantly, invading my mind and numbing it, rotting it with crap.