• About

The Wilderness Road

The Wilderness Road

Monthly Archives: April 2013

The Sound of Silence

28 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Wendell Berry

≈ Leave a comment

Detail from the porch of the Saluda Clergy Cottage

Detail from the porch of the Saluda Clergy Cottage

Spending a quiet weekend in Saluda preparing the Clergy Cottage for the 2013 season. The key word here is “quiet.” I had forgotten how nearly silent it is here compared to the busy crossroads (which inspired last week’s blog post) we live on in Savannah.

When I awoke in the middle of the night last night, the only sound I could hear was the ringing in my ears. It felt almost preternatural. Even this morning, the birdsong seemed somewhat muted.

On the corner of Whitaker and Gaston, there is a constant deluge of sound: cars, motorcycles, the sirens of police cars, fire engines and ambulances, trolleys full of tourists and the continual patter of their guides. Because Forsyth Park is across the street, bird song is almost continual, and often loud. I even heard our downstairs neighbor once tell a particularly noisy little avian to “shut up, bird.”

In addition, there’s the sound of people laughing or talking, sometimes even yelling, as they pass by; there’s the rhythm of joggers’ feet slapping the pavement as they run around the park; the cacophony of dogs barking; drums beating, and the occasional drift of music from various instruments. It is easily the symphony of city life.

Sitting here in the quiet of the Blue Ridge Mountains reminds me what it is like to experience the natural peace of the outdoors. I have learned to tune out, when necessary, the noisy strains of city life. But there are times I find it wonderfully liberating to hear absolutely nothing.

The following poem by Wendell Berry seemed particularly apropos this weekend:

 Sabbath Poem II, 1995

The best reward in going to the woods

Is being lost to other people, and

Lost sometimes to myself. I’m at the end

Of no bespeaking wire to spoil my goods;

I send no letter back I do not bring.

Whoever wants me now must hunt me down

Like something wild, and wild is anything

Beyond the reach of purpose not its own.

Wild is anything that’s not at home

In something else’s place. This good white oak

Is not an orchard tree, is unbespoke,

And it can live here by its will alone.

Lost to all other wills but Heaven’s—wild.

So where I most am found I’m lost to you,

Presuming friend, and only can be called

Or answered by a certain one, or two.

 

Crossroads

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Acts 8

≈ 2 Comments

crossroads

Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

Go to the busiest crossroads you know, and try to notice everything: all the people, the cars, the buses, the colors, the noises, the clouds, the birds, the spaces. Notice the impatience.

Now picture the cross on which Jesus died as a crossroads of people, time and place; a physical crossroads through which at some time all people pass. Understand the cross as a meeting-place of all history with God, the source of all love, forgiveness and peace.

Remember in prayer all those who are at a particular crossroads in their own life, especially anyone close to you or with whom you have spoken in the last day or so. Here is another prayer which can be said over and over again–perhaps with ten repetitions–at a crossroads, at a home, or wherever you pray:

I praise You, Jesus, Son of the living God. The power of the Holy Spirit is with You to heal. Blessed are Your death and resurrection; and holy beyond all telling is the name of Jesus. Holy Jesus have mercy on us. Fill us with grace and truth. Give us power to become the children of God, and protect us always and everywhere by the loving power of the name of Jesus. AMEN.

via Aidan Clarke in The Secret Jesus

When a Tree Falls . . .

14 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Earth, Environment

≈ Leave a comment

Linn Cove viaduct

The following is an essay I wrote when we were living in Calhoun, Georgia . . .

This morning, as every morning, I looked out the kitchen window to get a feeling for the new day before I started my coffee. Living on a North Georgia pond and surrounded by water on three sides, I am often greeted by a variety of wildlife–mallards, Canada geese, blue and green heron.

But this morning, my view of the pond was blocked by a banner of leaves. My God, that’s a huge limb, I thought, assuming it had dropped from the large oak that guards the western shore of our spit of land. I leaned closer to the window in dawning horror. It wasn’t a limb at all, it was another oak, the one that shades the front of our house.

“Oh No!” I cried, giving voice to both my sorrow and shock. My mind was racing. How could it have fallen? There had been no wind last night, no storm. What had caused the death of this mighty oak and why hadn’t I heard it, felt it when it crashed to the earth?

My husband and I went outside to explore. It had fallen so very neatly–missing the birdbath by less than a foot and gently cupping a sapling maple between two of its limbs. Apparently the tree had fallen very slowly. Even the mistletoe and resurrection fern that carpeted its body lay undisturbed.

It appeared as if the tree, which had been close to 100 years old, had died in its sleep. But, an examination of the tree’s roots revealed the cause of its death. Two of the three major roots were dry and spongy. Dry rot? The oak had seemed so healthy. Our 50-year-old pines are slowly succumbing to the ravages of old age and pine beetles but they announce their death with a profusion of pinecones. What had caused the roots on our oak to rot.

Our next door neighbor wandered over to commiserate. “I tried to tell your mother not to build a fire there,” he said to my husband. Build a fire . . . that more than explained it. The only root still living was the one on the opposite side of the tree, the one away from the scorched bark. We could see it now that it was no longer camouflaged with coeleus. She had wanted to burn some brush, we discovered, and had figured that big old oak would be strong enough to take it.

How many plants die each year from our naiveté? Those we forget to water or water overmuch; those that are sensitive to heat or cold and die from exposure; and those that we allow to starve to death. The death of our oak seems a greater symbol to me. My mother-in-law felt that the tree couldn’t be hurt by a mere fire at its base. If she had carried the brush away from the tree and burned it elsewhere, the tree would be alive today. But it was more expedient to burn the brush where it lay. That shortcut cost a 100-year-old tree its life.

It is a similarly shortsighted attitude that causes companies to take shortcuts when it comes to the environment. When short-term profits are put ahead of long-term environmental effects, the outcome can be devastating. If a little fire can’t hurt a 100-year-old oak then surely a little clear-cutting won’t hurt our National Forests. And, what about a little toxic waste? Surely, the earth can take it. After all, she’s more than 4 billion years old. Our atmosphere has been around about as long, how can a little incineration of trash and a few aerosol sprays possibly hurt it that much?

It is true. The earth will recover but will she do so by shaking off the pesky human species first. The earth may well survive by rebuilding itself after we have destroyed the ecosystems that support us.

They say that when a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, it doesn’t make a sound. Maybe we should start listening a little harder.

We are such stuff as dreams are made of . . .

07 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Carl Jung, Dream Work, Shadow work

≈ Leave a comment

 

Mordencage Griffin by Taylor James

Mordencage Griffin by Taylor James

No amount of scepticism and criticism has yet enabled me to regard dreams as negligible occurrences. Often enough they appear senseless, but it is obviously we who lack the sense and ingenuity to read the enigmatic message from the nocturnal realm of the psyche. Seeing that at least half our psychic existence is passed in that realm, and that consciousness acts upon our nightly life just as much as the unconscious overshadows our daily life, it would seem all the more incumbent on medical psychology to sharpen its senses by a systematic study of dreams. Nobody doubts the importance of conscious experience; why then should we doubt the significance of unconscious happenings? They also are part of our life, and sometimes more truly a part of it for weal or woe than any happenings of the day.

 

Carl Jung, “The Practical Use of Dream Analysis” (1934). In CW 16: The Practice of Psychotherapy. pg. 325

 

 

 

 

 

Recent Posts

  • Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1f
  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1e
  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1d
  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1c

Archives

  • November 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • January 2021
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012

Categories

  • #MeToo
  • #ShareTheJourney
  • 7-Week Advent
  • A Sand County Almanac
  • A Spring in the Desert
  • Abrams Falls
  • Active Imagination
  • Acts 8
  • Advent
  • AdventWord
  • Albert Einstein
  • Alberto Ríos
  • Aldo Leopold
  • All Sinful Desires
  • Alvin C. York
  • Amma Syncletica
  • Amma Theodora
  • An Affair to Dismember
  • Anaïs Nin
  • Anastasie et Rémy
  • Angel Falls Rapid Trail
  • Angels
  • Animals
  • Anteater
  • anti-resolution
  • Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  • Any Way the Wind Blows
  • Apache
  • Apache Trail
  • Appalachian Trail
  • Archetypes
  • Arizona
  • Art
  • Arthur Symons
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Ash Wednesday
  • Atlanta
  • August
  • Autumn
  • backpacking
  • Beach
  • Beastie Boys
  • Bhagavad Gita
  • Big Ridge State Park
  • Big South Fork NRRA
  • Biodiversity
  • Birds
  • Bishop
  • Blessing
  • Bonaventure
  • Book covers
  • Book of Common Prayer
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Trailer
  • Bookmarks
  • Books
  • Botany
  • Breathing
  • Brian Weiss
  • Bungalow
  • Burundi
  • butterflies
  • Butterfly
  • cacti
  • cactus
  • California
  • Camp NaNoWriMo
  • Camping
  • Canada Geese
  • Canticle of Brother Sun
  • Carl Jung
  • Carmel
  • Casco Viejo
  • Cats
  • Cemetery
  • Cherokee National Forest
  • Chickadees
  • Chihuly
  • Christ
  • Christianity
  • Christmas
  • Claude McKay
  • Coal Seam
  • Collect
  • Colombia
  • Conservation
  • Cordell Hull
  • Costa Rica
  • Covid-19
  • Culture
  • Daffodils
  • Davy Crockett
  • Deadline
  • Death
  • Death's Dark Shadows
  • Desert
  • Desert Botanical Garden
  • Desert wisdom
  • Desire
  • Devotional
  • Diocese of Georgia
  • Divine
  • Dominican Republic
  • Don Quixote
  • Dr. Suess
  • Dracula
  • Dream Groups
  • Dream Journal
  • Dream Work
  • Dreams
  • Dylan Thomas
  • Earth
  • Easter
  • Ecology
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Edinburgh
  • Egypt
  • Elephant Seals
  • Eliora
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • Emily Brontë
  • Emily Dickinson
  • England
  • Enneagram
  • Environment
  • Ephrem the Syrian
  • Episcopal
  • Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
  • Evelyn Underhill
  • Existensialism
  • Extinction
  • Faeries
  • Fall Creek Falls State Park
  • Fantasy
  • Fate
  • Faust
  • Fear
  • Fiction
  • Fishing
  • Flora
  • Flowers
  • Forgiveness
  • Forward Movement
  • Four-Dimensional Man
  • Four-step dreamwork
  • Fox
  • Franciscan
  • Francois Truffaut
  • Frogs
  • G.K. Chesterton
  • Garden
  • Gender Equality
  • Gene Keys
  • Generosity
  • geocaching
  • George Herbert
  • Georgia State Parks
  • Ger Duany
  • German Shepherd
  • Ghost Flowers
  • Gihembe
  • Gilbert Gaul
  • Glastonbury
  • Glendale Glitters
  • Gnostic Gospels
  • God
  • GoodReads Giveaway
  • Great Smoky Mountains
  • Greenwich Cemetery
  • Grow Christians
  • Haden Institute
  • Hallowed Treasures Saga
  • Halloween
  • Hamlet
  • Happiness
  • Hemlock
  • Henry Miller
  • Henry Vaughan
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • Heredia
  • Herrens Veje
  • Hieroglyphs
  • Hiking
  • Hiking Tennessee
  • Historical Fiction
  • history
  • Hohokam
  • Honey Creek
  • Hope
  • Horror
  • horses
  • Hunting
  • Hurricane Irma
  • Hurricanes
  • Hymns
  • I-Ching Hexagram
  • Iceland
  • Image Activation Dreamwork
  • In Lonely Exile
  • Indian Pipe
  • Infrared
  • Inner Work
  • Insects
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Jabberwock
  • Jalalu ’d Din
  • Jane Bald
  • January
  • Jeanne Moreau
  • Jekyll Island
  • Jeremiah 6:16
  • Jeremy Taylor
  • Jerusalem
  • Jesus
  • John A. Sanford
  • Joshua Tree National Park
  • Joshua Trees
  • Joyce Kilmer
  • Jules et Jim
  • Julian of Norwich
  • July
  • June
  • Junipero Serra
  • Katahdin
  • Kentucky Derby
  • Kenya
  • King Crimson
  • King of Peace
  • Kirkus Review
  • La Paz Waterfall Gardens
  • Lady's Slipper
  • Lao Tzu
  • Lao-tse
  • Laurel Grove Cemetery
  • Le Tourbillon
  • Lent
  • Leo Tolstoy
  • Lomo'Instant Wide
  • Lomography
  • Love
  • m
  • Macro photography
  • Madame Guyon
  • Magnolia Springs State Park
  • March
  • Mary Magdalene
  • Matter
  • meditation
  • Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park
  • Meister Eckhart
  • Mesa
  • Michael Drayton
  • Miguel Cervantes
  • Mindfulness
  • Mission Carmel
  • Missions
  • Mountain Laurel
  • Movies
  • murder
  • mushrooms
  • Music
  • Myers-Briggs
  • mystery
  • Mystic
  • Mysticism
  • NaNoWriMo
  • Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park
  • National Parks
  • Nativity
  • Natural arch
  • Natural Bridge
  • Nature
  • Nevermore
  • New Year
  • New York City
  • Newsletter
  • Nicolai Gogol
  • Nietzsche
  • Non-fiction
  • November
  • O Come Emanuel
  • Ocotillo
  • Okefenokee
  • Opposites
  • Osho
  • Palestine
  • Palm Sunday
  • Panama
  • Papago Park
  • Paradox
  • Parque Nacional Soberanía
  • Parque Natural Metropolitano
  • Parrots
  • Pentecost
  • Petroglyphs
  • Phoenix
  • Photography
  • Piedras Blancas
  • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  • Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge
  • Pines
  • Pocket Jamie
  • Poetry
  • Prayer
  • Prudentius
  • Quail
  • Quotes
  • R.H. Blyth
  • Rainer Maria Rilke
  • Rapids
  • rattlesnakes
  • Rémy
  • Redemption
  • Refugees
  • religion
  • Revolutionary War
  • Richard Rudd
  • River
  • road trip
  • Roan Mountain
  • Robert A. Johnson
  • Robert Browning
  • Rock Houses
  • Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Romance
  • Rose
  • Roslyn Center
  • Route 66
  • Rwanda
  • Saint Augustine
  • Saint Clare
  • Saint Columba
  • Saint Cuthbert's Way
  • Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
  • Saint Francis
  • Saint John Chrysostom
  • Saint John of the Cross
  • Saint-Martin
  • Sancho Panza
  • Satan
  • Savage Gulf
  • Savannah
  • Savannah Film Festival
  • Scotland
  • Self-actualization
  • Serial Killers
  • Seven Deadly Sins
  • Shadow work
  • Shakespeare
  • Sheldon Church
  • Shepherd.com
  • Short Stories
  • Silphium
  • snakes
  • Snow
  • Society of Saint Francis
  • Song
  • Songs
  • Sonnets from the Portuguese
  • Soul
  • South Cumberland State Park
  • Spanish
  • spirituality
  • Spring
  • Spur Cross Ranch Recreation Area
  • St. Augustine's Prayer Book
  • Stabat Mater
  • stillness
  • Stone Door Trail
  • Summer
  • Sunflowers
  • supernatural
  • Superstition Mountains
  • T.S. Eliot
  • Television
  • Temperance Smith Alston
  • Tennessee State Parks
  • Termites
  • Terrorism
  • The Bird
  • The Cloud of Unknowing
  • The Devil's Beatitudes
  • The Donkey
  • The Favourite
  • The Garden of Love
  • The Little Prince
  • The Man of LaMancha
  • The Mule
  • The Night
  • The Path to Misery
  • The Raven
  • theater
  • Third Order
  • Thirteen Kingdoms
  • Thirteen Treasures
  • Three-Dimensional Man
  • Tonto National Monument
  • tortoise
  • Traffic
  • Travel
  • Treasures
  • tree frogs
  • Trees
  • Trout
  • True Confessions
  • True Love
  • Two-Dimensional Man
  • Tybee Island
  • Uncategorized
  • Unicorns
  • vampire hunters
  • vampires
  • Vegetables
  • Venetian Victoria
  • Violets
  • Virgin Mary
  • W.H. Auden
  • Walt Whitman
  • Waterfalls
  • Wave Cave
  • Wayne Dyer
  • Wendell Berry
  • Werewolf
  • Widow's Mite
  • Wild Goose Festival
  • wildflowers
  • Wildlife
  • William Blake
  • William Butler Yeats
  • William Cowper
  • William Wordsworth
  • Winter
  • Wisconsin
  • Wisdom
  • Women
  • woodcock
  • writing
  • Yoga
  • Zen

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • The Wilderness Road
    • Join 467 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Wilderness Road
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.