'There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by'.
Annie Dillard
Mata, was talking about the work of Annie Dillard and i had forgotten how good she is - full of wonder and beauty - a truly gifted writer who notices small graces and the big impact they leave if we would only try and notice ourselves...in truth sometimes we have to look with more than our eyes....
....here's what i mean
'I open my eyes and i see dark...i close my eyes and i see stars, deep stars giving way to deeper stars, deeper stars bowing to deepest stars at the crown of an infinite cone. "Still," wrote van Gogh in a letter, "a great deal of light falls on everything." If we are blinded by darkness, we are also blinded by light. When too much light falls on everything, a special terror results.'
(Taken from 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek')
6 comments:
Ahhhhh, I should have known :-)
Holy the Firm is also insightful, profound and moving.
For some reason i am reminded of these words from a songwriter friend of mine Brian Houston
‘Will you keep revealing to me all the mysteries,
and the truths and secrets so well hid
Like when mercy triumphs over judgement,
which reveals more about you than the law ever did’.
i think that's why we need art, why we need poets and writers, they somehow express the inexpressible...
After Annie Dillard published Pilgrim ...and got all those awards for it she resubmitted all the poetry she had gotten rejection slips for to the places that rejected it initially. They all accepted it in the 2nd go-round. Then she wrote an article for the NY Times about that and how writers must not take rejection too seriously. I love the gutsiness of that. She must be some gal.
I often thought about inviting her to lead a retreat at the centre i run - just could never get hold of her
a weekend of storytelling....hmmmm
Ben Okri once said that ‘stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and you change the individuals and nations.’ Stories are complex and may not be immediately self revealing, but may leave the listener somewhat undecided and needing to do further reflection and work.
Okri also suggests that ‘the parables of Jesus are more persuasive than his miracles...
how funny. i just read those okri bits in the bathroom this morning...
no better place to read....
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