04 October 2003 - 8:09 p.m.

Philocrites has an intriguing post up on idolatry in different keys. Just in time to ponder before tomorrow's "minister transition" meeting. . .

Still the low-grade headache - momentarily lulled out of my skull by chocolate-blackberry ice cream and hot violet tea, but ready to surge back in at any moment. Jaw still tender from that damn tv. Need to finish wrestling down some layouts and get myself to bed earlier rather than later.

On the plus side, we went to a lovely wedding this afternoon, and the reason I didn't turn in until 1 a.m. last night was because I sat up drinking tea, writing friends, starting some new poems and reading others.

Jane Kenyon: "How much better it is / to carry wood to the fire / than to moan about your life." - "The Clothes Pin"

Also Kenyon, from "After the Hurricane":

A crow breaks in upon our satisfaction.
We look up to see it lift heavily
from its nest high in the hemlock, and the bough
equivocate in the peculiar light. It was
the author of Walden, wasn't it,
who made a sacrament of saying no.

I used this affirmation by William F. Schulz for the benediction to last week's service at Cookeville. I can tell I've picked a good one when people come up afterwards to ask where they can find the text:

This is the mission of our faith:
To teach the fragile art of hospitality;
To revere both the critical mind and the generous heart;
To prove that diversity need not mean divisiveness;
And to witness to all that we must hold the whole world in our hands.

- Singing the Living Tradition, #459

One year ago: Auden's "Precious Five"