There’s server work on a site I hang out on tonight. If it all goes wrong, people can come over here and discuss how to make it better, or just chat.
JM Barrie, of Peter Pan fame, once described his writing as “playing hide and seek with angels.”
How, in a good* moment, would you describe your work†?
—–
* or strange**
† either the thing that pays or your life’s work‡
** to the extent that there is a difference
‡ vide supra
“Chop wood, carry water, pray” is a descriptor of practical religious practice that appeals to me quite strongly.
“O fire-feeding corpse of fallen tree,
Which now my granite-sharpened axe doth hew
(And may it cut like Justice, straight and true):
I praise thy Maker as I’m chopping thee.”
“O swiftly-flowing water, bright and clear,
Containéd in my pot like Grace once poured
Into a human soul by our dear Lord:
May thou be twice as sweet, though half as dear.”
The bell for Vespers rings. I calmly kneel,
Not praying, really, just inventing praise.
But then the silence comes, and phrase by phrase
Reclaims my wasted words, and makes them real.
And thus the evening justifies the day:
I learn to chop wood, carry water, pray.
Posted on Making Light.