Saturday, March 24, 2018

Anything can happen, and anything does

 
 
 

I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wandering awed about on a splintered wreck I’ve come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty beats and shines not IN its inperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them, under the wind-rent clouds, upstream and down.

One evening, just when I needed it most, a very good friend of mine sent this passage from the book PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK

 by Annie Dillard. 

When I read it, it spoke to me. I read it again and again. I really wanted to share it with you, too. 

A very long time ago I tried to read PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK. It was just a year after she wrote that book that I was living in a tiny old log cabin in Southesast Alaska, reading by the light of a kerosene lamp. But, I didn’t get it then. I wasn’t ready, I guess. Maybe I was too young to understand what she really meant. 

Now I’m revisiting The Pilgrim. 

TEACHING A STONE TO TALK is also new on my night stand. I am enthralled with the essay LIVING LIKE WEASELS.

Everybody knows how the weasel lives. Joyfully, right? 

“I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.”

 I would like to live as I should, as the weasel lives as he should. And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasel’s: open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will.

                        —Living Like Weasels

Thank you Nikki, for sending me those words the other night. For turning me on to Annie’s writing, again. Now, I know I’m ready.

❁  

13 comments:

  1. Read the synopsis on Wiki. I’m intrigued. 🤗

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    1. Hmmm... I’m not sure... 🤔
      But, thank you! :)

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  2. Like you I read Pilgrim when it first came out. Don't remember much except for "chick 'at all?". Might be time for another look. Currently reading this

    https://www.amazon.com/Braiding-Sweetgrass-Indigenous-Scientific-Knowledge/dp/1571313567/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1521990254&sr=1-1&keywords=braiding+sweetgrass+by+robin+wall+kimmerer

    Let me know if you don't have it and then watch the mail.

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    1. It’s interesting to me how many people HAVE tried to read that book...and we’re a bit stumped by her writing!
      I’m preferring TEACHING A STONE TO TALK. Thoughtful, short essays.
      I’ve certainly heard about Braiding Sweetgrass. But, no, I don’t own a copy!
      You must have liked the book.
      So good to see you here, Jerry. I hope you’re seeing signs of spring on your prairie, :)

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  3. This post brought me to tears.
    Wishing you all good things, dear woman. All good things.
    x

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  4. I too was given The Pilgrim Twice in my life and each time I could not read it, once it did not spoke to me, and the other time, it was too painful not allowing me time to process my feelings in the order that they should be processed...I suppose I have to get the guts to read it.

    Lovely photo Lynn...You have me thinking about weasels, are you talking about Farfel? Sending you love and healing thoughts...Happy Easter to Beautiful You!

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    1. I understand what you say about the book. Beautiful and yet painful.
      I’m not familiar with Farfel... must be a real character! ;)
      Love you all & Happy Easter. xo

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  5. You remind me to pull that book off my closet shelf! I love that book and I shall read until I find your special passage. I'm just taking my sweet time reading your gift book, Out of the Dust. It's poetry, to be savored an not devoured.

    Kindest prayers and loving thoughts to you,,, my sweet sweet prairie sister.

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