Thursday, May 17, 2007

Poetry Thursday - It is I Who Must Begin

It is I who must begin.
Once I begin, once I try --
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying things
would be easier elsewhere,
without grand speeches and
ostentatious gestures,
but all the more persistently
-- to live in harmony
with the "voice of Being," as I
understand it within myself
-- as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out
upon that road.

Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost.

Vaclav Havel,
(from
Teaching With Fire)

Meister Eckhardt's contingent and non-essential will? Perhaps we should be like the new grapevines which Cassie and I discovered in the hedgerow on our walk this morning, send out tiny leaves, tender shoots and gloriously curling red vines and take no thought of tomorrow.

3 comments:

Dedri said...

That poem for today is right on the mark. It is beautiful and subtle and reminds us all that we have to begin where we are and not wait for life to come to us at some undefined point in time. Life takes place every day and not at some planned juncture in the future. Thanks for the reminder!

Tabor said...

Beginnings are always so hard and I don't really know why because the endings are not always that bad.

Daisy Lupin said...

Iwas writing my blog posting about liminal places and I wanted to find out the root of the word and where it came from, when I googled I got to one of your pages, and hence to this blog. It is a beautiful blog, I have read some entries but will be back to see more. I have also spotted a Barbara Kingsolver book I have never read before. Also quickly flipped through your modern fiction pages, lots I have read but goody some new authors for me. For what is life without a pile of books to read. I'll be back.