I choose to believe

This entry was posted in Diary, Quotes on by .

To balance the grimness of last week, here is a Yolanda King quote from her speech at the Martin Luther King Jr Convocation in Santa Cruz a couple of years ago. It suits my mood today! I am choosing to believe things will work out, that life can be fun and wonderful again, that I can control my reality with my thoughts. I am excited.

“I know in my heart the dream will be realized. I choose to believe. And choosing is a powerful thing. It’s available to you at every moment. You can choose understanding over anger, believing over nonbelieving, action over inaction. It gives meaning to every choice we make.”

When titles belie …

This entry was posted in Diary, Poetry on by .

Most likely Wendell Berry understands something I don’t but the title of this poem doesn’t seem to match the grim beauty of his words. Both, however, fit my mood.

The Wish to Be Generous

All that I serve will die, all my delights,
the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,
the silent lilies standing in the woods,
the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all
will burn in man’s evil, or dwindle
in its own age. Let the world bring on me
the sleep of darkness without stars, so I may know
my little light taken from me into the seed
of the beginning and the end, so I may bow
to mystery, and take my stand on the earth
like a tree in a field, passing without haste
or regret toward what will be, my life
a patient willing descent into the grass.

~ Wendell Berry ~

(The Collected Poems, 1957-1982)