How badly the world needs words.
Don't be fooled
By how green it is,
How it seems to be thriving.
"Willow" rescues that tree
From its radiant perishing.
How much more so then
When you name the beloved.
-Gregory Orr
A year later, the Elephant Ear plant is still growing.
Thia and I named her Ellie when we got her last year at the Relief Sale.
She had quite the personality.
This weekend I got to re-pot the baby plant growing out of the roots.
So! My fifth year in a row of attending the Harrisonburg Relief Sale. :) Gosh, it's nice to feel the sense of belonging that comes from running into seven of your old professors, from mad-dash hugs from 8-year-olds, from seeing familiar faces scattered throughout a crowd.
I don't have enough words to explain how it feels to hear people start to clap as the bidding for quilts pushes above $1000. How it feels to imagine the money going to help relief efforts in Syria, or to support my friends working for MCC in Colombia and Nigeria.
I'll just say that it feels good.
I'll also say that planting the baby elephant ear made me think of potential; all that space in the pot for growth.
I'm thinking that maybe I'll just call the baby plant L. Like "Ellie," and also - like a reminder, maybe; like a prayer for L who is working, still, in Colombia.
did the beloved die?
yes and no.
only really ceasing
when we cease to care.
...which is to say:
helping the beloved
to be reborn
by writing and reading
poems.
which is to say:
we have an urgent purpose.
which is to say.
-gregory orr
the view from Thia's front porch
yes, it's true; the world is beautiful
No comments:
Post a Comment