"an emotion has found its thought"

And every year there is a brief, startling moment

When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and

Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless

Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:

It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;

It is the changing light of fall falling on us.

from "Fall" by Edward Hirsch

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. ~Robert Frost

This is just a portion of a  poem that I read last week in "The Writer's Almanac", a treasure of a daily electronic newsletter from Garrison Keillor and publicradio.org.  Click on the link above and read the entire poem - you won't be sorry!

 Each "The Writer's Almanac" newsletter includes a poem and some historical literary highlights of the day, with links to more information on the authors mentioned.

This poem, from the newsletter on September 25, expresses so much of what I feel about Fall, especially in the lines above.  I've tried for several weeks to capture this essence of Fall in photos and I've failed.  

This poem proves to me that  the image formed from words can be more vivid than a photograph or a painting.   

Gifted writers bless us all with their words.

What writers have blessed you?

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin

What is was was football

I'm not a fan of football in general.  I'd much rather work outside in the garden or read a good book than watch a football game on television.  But I am a fan of the college football Saturday experience, especially at UNC-Chapel Hill, where I went to school long enough to meet the love of my life.  We've returned to campus for a game whenever we've had the chance over the years - and we had a chance this past weekend.  It wasn't classic football weather - it was much too hot - but everything else about the day was memory-making fun.

Our son, daughter, and son-in-law joined us (all UNC-CH graduates) with four of our grandchildren for the pre-game festivities, including the drumline and the band. (This video is from 2008, but the sound hasn't changed.)

At the stadium spirits were high as the team arrived on the field.

The young fan in front of me soon shed his blue wig because of the heat, but he didn't shed his enthusiasm.

Our cheering and enthusiasm didn't result in a win, but it was a fun game all the same.

Afterwards we joined the crowd and walked to Franklin Street to our favorite restaurant and rooftop bar to cool off.

All in all, it was a blessing of a day.

And here is a blessing for all of us - Andy Griffith and his "What it was was football" routine.

A wayside sacrament

"When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, 

my soul expands in worship of the creator."

Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

The late afternoon-early evening view from my deck 

I had planned to catch up on some household chores after work today, but fatigue and the beauty of the evening sky convinced me that those chores could wait.  I took Ralph Waldo Emerson's advice.

Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful.
It is God's handwriting - a wayside sacrament.

Window Cleaning

"We're all shut up in rooms.  Everybody.  And nobody can ever get in to anybody else's room.  That's because we've got bodies.  And the only way we can have contact with people is through the windows in our rooms. . . And some people have more windows than others.  And everybody's windows get dirty.  So there need to be window cleaners."   Felix to Katherine in Madeleine L'Engle's "The Small Rain"

The windows to our souls - the windows through which we view the world and the world views each of us, as Felix says - these windows get dirty.  Maybe there are objects in our windows, too, as there are in my kitchen window.  They don't necessarily obstruct the view but they may affect our perspective.

The short passage from "The Small Rain"  had me thinking of all the obstacles to community, to understanding and caring for one another -  to seeing each other through our windows.  Is it only dirt and objects in the windows that keep us from seeing and knowing each other?  Don't we also close the blinds and draw the shades on ourselves to keep others out?  At other times we seem to hang mirrors in our windows so that we don't see out at all, we only see a reflection of ourselves.

Our windows are clouded and dirty or even shuttered with prejudice, pain, fear, and countless other things.  We're isolated. We are helpless to clean or open our own windows.  Our relationships and communities suffer.  Yet we want to belong and be loved, we long to connect.  We need to see and be seen for who we truly are.  

We're not capable of cleaning these windows on our own.  We need God's help.  We need the tools he can provide:  a listening ear, a compassionate heart, a forgiving spirit, unconditional love.  We can allow ourselves to be God's window washing tools.  When we are willing to forgive and be forgiven, to share ourselves and to listen, to love without reservation - then we will see each other and the world more clearly.

"The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words. " — Rachel Naomi Remen

In her book, "My Grandfather's Blessings",  Remen writes about her grandfather's death and her realization that he had taught her what it means to be blessed:

"At first I was afraid that without him to see me, and tell God who I was, I might disappear. But slowly over time I came to understand that in some mysterious way, I had learned to see myself through his eyes. And that once blessed, we are blessed forever."

Bless and be blessed.  Wash some windows.