Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Equinox
The hills, mountains, and valleys of this journey are each blessings. Even the fear, the pain, the loss, the clarity and the revelations are each opportunities to remember that I am not alone. That I have a choice in how I feel and how I see the situation. These two poems sum it all up. I first read this the day I was offered a new job and the same day we got the biopsy report. My new pilgramage started one month ago today- 2/21/06. You can find more on http://www.panhala.net/
On Pilgrimage
May the smell of thyme and lavender accompany us on our journey
To a province that does not know how lucky it is
For it was, among all the hidden corners of the earth,
The only one chosen and visited.
We tended toward the Place but no signs led there.
Till it revealed itself in a pastoral valley
Between mountains that look older than memory,
By a narrow river humming at the grotto.
May the taste of wine and roast meat stay with us
As it did when we used to feast in the clearings,
Searching, not finding, gathering rumors,
Always comforted by the brightness of the day.
May the gentle mountains and the bells of the flocks
Remind us of everything we have lost,
For we have seen on our way and fallen in love
With the world that will pass in a twinkling.
~ Czeslaw Milosz ~
(New & Collected Poems, translations by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass)
As long as the Earth can make a spring every year,
I Can.
As long as the Earth can flower and produce nurturing fruit,
I Can.
Because, I'm the Earth.
I won't give up until the Earth gives up.
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Much Love,
North
