Friday, September 21<\/p>\n
After chilly rain yesterday, today\u2019s\u00a0morning sun tells news of autumn on its way, \u00a0my favorite season, and at the ending of this work week, three soul friends come visiting. \u00a0Merritt \u201cRoe\u201d Smith, \u00a0my longest kinsman of the academy comes from MIT along with Dave Lucsco whom Roe recommended and I hired as the second and final managing editor of\u00a0Technology and Culture<\/u>. \u00a0Now he works at Auburn. \u00a0Our work connected us over years of passion for scholarly excellence and ripened into deep resilient shared memories. \u00a0Later today, after Roe and Dave have each headed home, \u00a0Mary Tobacco, whom I\u2019ve known longer than either, known and loved as I did her mother Curley before she died of cancer late in the last century, took matters in her own hands for some face time this summer. \u00a0My surgery kept me from time on Pine Ridge this year. \u00a0She will spend the weekend as a guest in our house.<\/p>\n
How to take in such depth of beauty resilient over decades of shared commitments \u2014 \u00a0joy and grief, fatigue and energy and gratitude for deep beauty? \u00a0Poetry helps. \u00a0Today, I am inviting David Whyte to talk with the four of us along with the 2400 other readers of the \u201cWork Day\/hard time\u201d list. \u00a0 Best to read \u201cThe Journey\u201d out loud, with pauses. \u00a0\u00a0Have a blest weekend, maybe pausing to taste the approach of Autumn.<\/p>\n
john st sj<\/p>\n
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Today\u2019s Post \u00a0–<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>David Whyte\u00a0\u201cThe Journey\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Above the mountains<\/p>\n the geese turn into Painting their Sometimes everything so you can find Sometimes it takes first, bright Sometimes with someone has written You are not leaving. from\u00a0House of Belonging<\/a>\u00a0by David Whyte<\/p>\n p.s.\u00a0When we buried my Dad in 1980, I had never known grief so raw. \u00a0 Dad\u2019s death came 3 weeks after his birthday just after he had gone jaundiced from the cancer that took him on October 12. \u00a0I held him most of his last night, we told each other important truths that lived between us. Today, his beauty and the grace he awakened in me back then keep my company.<\/p>\n We used a passage of scripture for his funeral: Friday, September 21 After chilly rain yesterday, today\u2019s\u00a0morning sun tells news of autumn on its way, \u00a0my favorite season, and at the ending of this work week, three soul friends come visiting. \u00a0Merritt \u201cRoe\u201d Smith, \u00a0my longest kinsman of the … Continue reading
\nthe light again<\/p>\n
\nblack silhouettes
\non an open sky.<\/p>\n
\nhas to be
\ninscribed across
\nthe heavens<\/p>\n
\nthe one line
\nalready written
\ninside you.<\/p>\n
\na great sky
\nto find that<\/p>\n
\nand indescribable
\nwedge of freedom
\nin your own heart.<\/p>\n
\nthe bones of the black
\nsticks left when the fire
\nhas gone out<\/p>\n
\nsomething new
\nin the ashes of your life.<\/p>\n
\nEven as the light fades quickly now,
\nyou are arriving.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLove tenderly,
\nAct justly,
\nAnd walk humbly before your God.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"