image by Rebekah Choat
After day is done,
before night has begun,
a somber-sweet hour —
a deep breath, regathering,
returning to the center
~ Rebekah Choat
The Gloaming
Tag Archives: beauty
Gossamer
image by Rebekah Choat
Some moments are like
spiderwebs – light and airy,
strong yet delicate;
lovely gossamer things
barely visible on film.
~ Rebekah Choat
Down the Withywindle
image by Rebekah Choat
Dark river winding
under late drowsy sunshine,
air thick with willows,
warm breeze blowing softly
down the Withywindle.
~ Rebekah Choat
Overheard
In the wee hours,
the wind and the chimes make love
wildly, joyously.
~ Rebekah Choat
Another Sunday morning
image by Rebekah Choat
Another Sunday morning comes
And I resume the standing Sabbath
Of the woods, where the finest blooms
Of time return, and where no path
Is worn but wears its makers out
At last, and disappeares in leaves
Of fallen seasons. The tracked rut
Fills and levels; here nothing grieves
In the risen season. Past life
Lives in the living. Resurrection
Is in the way each maple leaf
Commemorates its kind, by connection
Outreaching understanding. What rises
Rises into comprehension
And beyond. Even falling raises
In praise of light. What is begun
Is unfinished. And so the mind
That comes to rest among the bluebells
Comes to rest in motion, refined
By alteration. The bud swells,
Opens, makes seed, falls, is well,
Being becoming what it is:
Miracle and parable
Exceeding thought, because it is
Immeasurable; the understander
Encloses understanding, thus
Darkens the light. We can stand under
No ray that is not dimmed by us.
The mind that comes to rest is tended
In ways that it cannot intend;
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended
By what it cannot comprehend.
Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by
Your will, not ours, And it is fit
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it.
~ Wendell Berry
First Light
image by Rebekah Choat
Watching riverside
for first light reflected in
early-still water.
~ Rebekah Choat
November 1
image by Rebekah Choat
and now November —
darkness falls and the night draws,
as you do, nearer.
~ Rebekah Choat
Early September
image by Rebekah Choat
Early September
morning, outdoors, listening
to quiet, feeling
for balance, for the center,
tending soul and garden.
~ Rebekah Choat
When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention by Mary Oliver
Ely Cathedral Rose
image copyright Rebekah Choat
“As long as we are able to
be extravagant we will be
hugely and damply
extravagant. Then we will drop
foil by foil to the ground. This
is our unalterable task, and we do it
joyfully.”
And they went on. “Listen,
the heart-shackles are not, as you think,
death, illness, pain,
unrequited hope, not loneliness, but
lassitude, rue, vainglory, fear, anxiety,
selfishness.”
Their fragrance all the while rising
from their blind bodies, making me
spin with joy.
Between the Trees
image by Rebekah Choat
Genesis 2: 8-9: The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden,
and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground
the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Revelation 22: 1-2: And he showed me a pure river of water of life,
clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree
of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Trees, at the beginning of life as we know it, and at what we call the end of life as we know it – or, we could say, the beginning of life as we shall know it even as we are known. Between them, this long stretch of time, some of which is now ours – the days of living between the trees.
Becka's Blog 