#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

What is the way to the woods, how do you go there?
By climbing up through the six days’ field,
kept in all the body’s years, the body’s
sorrow, weariness, and joy. By passing through
the narrow gate on the far side of that field
where the pasture grass of the body’s life gives way
to the high, original standing of the trees.
By coming into the shadow, the shadow
of the grace of the strait way’s ending,
the shadow of the mercy of light.

~ Wendell Berry, Excerpt from “Sabbath Poem”

It’s a morning for a walk with a special one, and crossing the trestle bridge, Charlie right behind, only a little whining. We are going to see if there are any planes being flown, model planes, in the meadow’s air field. We are in luck! We watch for a bit until Charlie gets into trouble on the landing strip, and we must retreat. At home, I get to my desk. I need to write and send my weekly Aim for Astonishing prompt. I sit in front of the blank page, blank minded. Hmmm. I don’t know what I’m writing about this week. Some false starts. Then I think, well, I just won’t send one this week. And then I think, okay, then. But what? There’s such an empty hump, thinking of that, of giving up. There’s nowhere else I want to go in the day. So, I keep at it, and then I have my blog about being outdoors on Sunday, #sundaysanctuary. And I write and send it, and then I go on with my day feeling the fiery maple in my spirit. I get to go out for a bit into Wellesley with my youngest. We go to the nail salon, and then we walk around town toward a cup of tea. Both the coffee shops that used to be in town are permanently closed. There is nowhere on Sunday for a cup of tea. But we have a lovely walk and talk, and that’s what I wanted most.