Quote of the day:
“Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage.
I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.
Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock-more than a maple- a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is one of my favorite books of all time. Dillard’s prose reads like poetry. She writes like a dream expressing the wonder and beauty of nature, the inexplicable mysteries of life, and the small and wondrous graces that can be found all around us.
“The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside by a generous hand. But- and this is the point- who gets excited by a mere penny? But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days.”
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Stalking Grace
Dillard suggests we “stalk the gaps.” But what does that mean? I stalk the gaps when I go out into the woods and instead of donning my ear buds, turning up the music and striding down the path, I walk slowly down the path, camera around my neck, seeking tiny wonders, “pennies” scattered throughout the landscape waiting to be noticed.
I crouch down to contemplate the beauty of a tiny plant that has pushed up through the dead leaves on the woodland floor, green against brown.
I marvel at the grace and beauty of ferns emerging—all curves, fractals, spirals, and spirals within spirals.
Ferns emerging
I laugh at the patterns that plants create. Look closely. Each leaf is a work of art.
Patterns
Tips for Stalking Grace in Your Life
- Slow down. Kneel down and look closely at nature. She never stops throwing pennies of grace our way.
Fern Fiddleheads
- Live simply, let go of the distractions of endless entertainment, distraction and noise. Enter the silence regularly.
New life, old rock
- Find something that you love to do and make time in your life to do it—dance, move, sing, paint, make photos.
Create! With Abandon!
Make a practice of stalking grace every day by becoming present to the beauty that surrounds you wherever you are.
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