Loose ends
Because life's not tidy
I think it was Jen Hatmaker who would finish her podcasts with a question from Barbara Brown Taylor: “What’s saving your life right now?” These are the little things that make life worth living, and they sometimes feel like loose ends: unfinished, unresolved, and untidy. They carry curiosity and invite reflection. What prompted this loose end? Where did it come from? Why am I remembering it now?
Here are several of mine:
Photo of the week
This week found me working some with my Kalona cousins. What I love about this photo is that it reminds me of a moment I did NOT photograph. The sun was dipping into the night at about 4.45 pm on Tuesday, disrupting the winter gray with purples, periwinkles, oranges, and deep reds with the “blue of distance” just below at the far reaches of the Iowa countryside. This photo above was taken yesterday—two days later—and you can still see some of that blue of distance at the very edge of the horizon where the trees and hills have that smokey blue.
Vinyl of the week - Strange Trails by Lord Huron
The lyrics that always make me stop in my tracks begin “The night we met”:
I am not the only traveler
Who has not repaid his debt
I've been searching for a trail to follow again
Take me back to the night we met
It’s been on the turntable all week.
Quote of the week
Rebecca Solnit, A field guide to getting lost, p. 30. She has become my favorite writer in the past couple of years, and I was back in the text at week’s beginning. Special thanks to Pádraig Ó Tuama for recommending it several years ago. It’s been the source of countless conversations. And you can see where my thoughts on the “Photo of the week” came from. =)
We treat desire as a problem to be solved, address what desire is for and focus on that something and how to acquire it rather than on the nature and the sensation of desire, though often it is the distance between us and the object of desire that fills the space in between with the blue of longing. I wonder sometimes whether with a slight adjustment of perspective it could be cherished as a sensation on its own terms since it is as inherent to the human condition as blue is to distance?
LOL of the week
This was a toss up for me between the Cybertruck song and the fighting T-Rexes. Ultimately, the T-Rexes won because I’m laughing as hard this time as I did the first.
Watch with sound on. As one comment says, “These are my kind of people.”
Alright, the week’s a wrap. What are some of your loose ends? Please share!