Thanks, Justin, for reminding me that I haven't blogged in quite some time. it's always good to know there's a demand out there somewhere. sometimes its easier, and always more fun, to write with specific people in mind. perhaps that's also why I decided the other day to begin reading the book you gave me months and months ago.
I was in a particularly hazy haze without as much as a hairsbreadth of room to "self realize" myself for what seemed like days and weeks. so I lay on the couch for 10 minutes doing absolutely nothing trying to remember that I am me and decided to open up The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris. I was so delighted by it that I decided it would make a good post all on its own. (at least until I am able to self-realize myself back into expressable form) later in the evening I jokingly told my wife that I had begun my 12th concurrent book - books that I am "in the process" of reading simultaneously. she inquired, "how many books do you have over there." (referring to my bedside stash) I counted eight right there and I suppose there are others on the bookshelf.
I haven't been able to consistenly finish books probably since high school. although, I still use the pocket dictionary I won in fourth grade for reading the most Book-It books. Something happened to my brain - I remember feeling it change in college. there could be many factors involved here - attention deficit, boredom, depression, lack of self-realization time, etc. so without further ado, here is Kathleen Norris' opening page: words that remind me of the value of writing, its purpose and its magic.
DAWN
Somehow myself survived the night/And entered with
the Day . . . -Emily Dickinson
.
Abba Poeman said concerning Abba Prior that every day
he made a new beginning.-THE SAYINGS OF THE DESERT FATHERS
.
"In the Orthodox tradition, the icon of Wisdom depicts a woman seated on a throne. Her skin and her clothing are red, to symbolize the dawn emerging against the deep, starry blue of night.
For years, early morning was a time I dreaded. In the process of waking up, my mind would run with panic. All the worries of the previous day would still be with me, spinning around with old regrets as well as fears for the future. I don't know how or when the change came, but now when I emerge from night, it is with more hope than fear. I try to get outside as early as possible so that I can look for signs of first light, the faint, muddy red of dawn."
2 comments:
The best books receive you when you come and dismiss you when you go, when you go with a blow to the head. Kafka says "Altogether, I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book does not shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it in the first place?"
...maybe thats why college numbed your skull. our college textbooks were all PC so as not 2 "bite and sting". but probably it was all those music therapy internship hours that fried our brains...
much happiness 2 u as u return 2 the joys of reading. may your post college brain b once again enlightened n amused.
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