"X"

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we're asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

-  Wendell Berry, from A Timbered Choir.

I'm reminded, and quite grateful in this, that I can plant the pumpkin, water the pumpkin, peel away the browning leaves, but all of life requires the filling.

In me, the filling comes when I pull the weed and allow for that seeping in of the Spirit.

Quotable Sunday & The Name is Mom ~ starts tomorrow

MOTHER TO SON

 - Langston Hughes, 1922

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

~.~.~

I have to say I love Langston Hughes work. My friend Rachael used to quote his poetry to me when she was 11 or 12. Now she's post college and off living in Spain. Someday I'll have to tell ya'll about her. We met when she was 6 and I couldn't be clearer that she was quite a nudge to my heart to get workin' on them babies and being "Mom."

~.~.~

Leading up to Mother's Day and into May you're invited to join in:
The Name is Mom.
We'll just celebrate everything the word means.
How we are, what we do, how we learn, who inspires, what we think of...Mom.
To join in, send an email my way and I'll send a button, add your name and off we go.

e.e. cummings -- Spring is like a perhaps hand ~ In Search of Spring

III

Spring is like a perhaps hand 
(which comes carefully 
out of Nowhere)arranging 
a window,into which people look(while 
people stare
arranging and changing placing 
carefully there a strange 
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps 
Hand in a window 
(carefully to 
and fro moving New and 
Old things,while 
people stare carefully 
moving a perhaps 
fraction of flower here placing 
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.