Some Sunday Afternoon

A friend who follows this blog tells me about her daily blog reading ritual. She awakens, puts on a kettle for tea, turns on classical music, and when the tea is ready; sits down and reads or listens to the blog offering.

I imagine her reading today's poem, "Some Sunday afternoon, it may be" and it brings me such joy.

My friend has a strong and healthy meditation practice and is at ease being alone. Her nature reminds me of the woman in today's inspiring short video, "Seek Silence", produced by Green Renaissance. After you watch, take a peaceful pause and soak in today's poem.

"Some Sunday afternoon, it may be"

- by Wendell Berry

Some Sunday afternoon, it may be,

you are sitting under your porch roof,

looking down through the trees

to the river, watching the rain. The circles

made by the raindrops’ striking

expand, intersect, dissolve,

and suddenly (for you are getting on

now, and much of your life is memory)

the hands of the dead, who have been here

with you, rest upon you tenderly

as the rain rests shining

upon the leaves. And you think then

(for thought will come) of the strangeness

of the thought of heaven, for now

you have imagined yourself there,

remembering with longing this

happiness, this rain. Sometimes here

we are there, and there is no death.

"1996, V" ["Some Sunday afternoon, it may be"] by Wendell Berry, from This Day: New & Collected Sabbath Poems 1979-2012. © Counterpoint, 2013.

- Photo by Nikita Kachanovsky on Unsplash