The Impeded Stream

There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say, "It is yet more difficult than you thought." This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.
                                   ~~ Wendell Berry

TODAY'S BIG STORY:  Wendell Berry! I was first introduced to Wendell Berry's words yesterday ~ twice!  When two witness come forth with the same name on the same day, I immediately recognize an invisible Teacher at work saying, "I want you to learn something from this person."

So here is how the universe worked yesterday...My recovery routine is shaped like a triangle.  I move from reading in the recliner to sitting at the computer to catching up on my recorded DVR list  ~ a perfect isosceles triangle.  Point A to Point B to Point C, and on certain days, the monotony is maddening. Yesterday, I watched a Super Soul Sunday marathon, which included an interview with Sarah Ban Breathnach and Oprah.  I was totally shocked as I listened to Ms. Breathnach's personal account of financial ruin after the phenomenal success of Simple Abundance and Something More ~ two of her books which remain on my nightstand.

From Point A (the television), I moved to Point B (the computer).  I wanted to check out the Oprah website to see if more of the interview might be on the Super Soul Sunday page.  Instead of searching for the program, I was diverted by a Super Soul Short about the Keepers of Apricot Lane Farms. (Focus has not been my strong suit during recovery...for sure.)  I watched the video about  filmmaker John Chester who is now an organic and biodynamic farmer.  Towards the end of the video, he quoted Wendell Berry: Under the pavement, the soil is dreaming of grass. What a great quote!  I grabbed my beloved Anthropologie quote journal and made my first Wendell Berry entry.

Last night, I lay in bed and observed my two Sarah Ban Breathnach books.  I love the covers of the books, because they match the colors of everything in my bedroom; but I also relish the content! After years of reading and re-reading, I have underlined and highlighted half of the pages.  I decided to open Something More and just start reading...page 223, The House of Belonging.  On page 224 ~ third paragraph from the top ~ was a quote from Wendell Berry!  The quote wasn't underlined or highlighted, as though I had skipped it completely...but there he was again! The words read as follows:  "The life we want is not merely the one we have chosen and made," the poet Wendell Berry tells us. "It is the one we must be choosing and making."

Two witnesses in one day speaking the same name into my existence...Wendell Berry.  As soon as I got up this morning, I spent most of my time at Point B ~ requesting Wendell Berry books from the library, reading Wendell Berry quotes online and learning about this American man of letters who has been compared to Henry David Thoreau...which led me to the impeded stream.

Oh my gosh...no words.  No certifiable words!  With one quote, a Kentucky farmer named Wendell Berry opened my soul like fresh-plowed dirt during spring planting! The impeded stream is the one that sings!

When I was a little girl, I loved walking along the creek that ran the full length of my grandpa's property.  Sometimes I walked with my little brother and sometimes by myself.  The most fun part of the journey was listening for the tiny waterfalls.  As I walked along the creek bank, I would randomly stop and listen.  The closer I got to one of the waterfalls, the louder the ripples of the water became.  I just realized TODAY that the music of the stream was all about the rocks!  The flow of water alone was not generating that beautiful sound; the impediments all along the stream's path had become its instruments of song! A-ha Moment to the 10th power!

And those two muses...I have always known that both are constantly at work in my life; however, I have never seen the Muse of Realization in the same light as I did today. The Muse of Inspiration is the flow of life for me, but the Muse of Realization is that perfectly-formed rock bed that allows the flow to have a voice. Now I realize that I cannot have one muse without the other.  Both muses are necessary in order to have those intermittent moments of joy when we fully discover the simple, yet perfect song, that we were meant to find!

The impeded stream is the one that sings!  I don't know how the Universe decides whose names are filed in its infinite Rolodex, but I am so grateful that the card with Wendell Berry's name on it was pulled this week...just for me.

Dianne ; )