Home (vol. 4, no. 12)

Here are a few things I’m sharing this month:

1. Question I’m living with:

“And tell me, people of Orphalese, what have you in these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors? Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power? Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind? Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain? Tell me, have you these in your houses?” – Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet)

2. Quote I’m considering:

• “Home is not where you were born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease.” – Naguib Mahfouz

3. Poem I’m pondering:

Excerpt from “Beannacht” by John O’Donohue

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

Read the rest of the poem here.

4. Something inspiring:

• “Most of today’s richest countries – all of Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea – are now regaining forest.” – Our World in Data 

5. Another poem:

Excerpt from “This Place That You Belong To” by Wendell Berry

Speak to your fellow humans as your place
has taught you to speak, as it has spoken to you.
Speak its dialect as your old compatriots spoke it
before they had heard a radio. Speak
publicly what cannot be taught or learned in public.

Listen privately, silently to the voices that rise up
from the pages of books and from your own heart.
Be still and listen to the voices that belong
to the streambanks and the trees and the open fields.
There are songs and sayings that belong to this place,
by which it speaks for itself and no other.

Found your hope, then, on the ground under your feet.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Thanks so much. And, have a great day! – shawn