Rilke, Indigenous Psalms, New Music (Jon Batiste and David Wilcox), and Spiderwebs...All Expansive
Monday morning was a sermon walk at Long Branch before their opening hours shift to 8a in September. It was a perfect, cool, sunny, and dew-covered morning. Once the sun got above the horizon, the spiderwebs glistened everywhere. I was giving thanks for my macro lens that enabled me to see so much more than what is obvious to the un-aided eye. But before I share the photos, a few other places where I’m continuing to experience expansiveness. First some words from my reading from Rilke on Sunday night. It was a section of a poem called “The Knight” from his “Book of Images.” Receive the expansiveness in these words:
The knight rides forth in coal-black steel
into the teeming world.Outside his armor everything is there: sunlight and valley,
friend and foe and feast,
May, maiden, forest and grail,
and God himself in a thousand forms
to be found along every road.But inside the armor darkly enclosing him
crouches death. And the thought comes
and comes again:
When will the blade
pierce this iron sheath,
the undeserved and liberating blade
that will fetch me from my hiding place
where I’ve been so long compressed— so that, at last, I may stretch my limbs
and hear my full voice.1
I adore the sense of how the armor, which is meant to protect the knight, is actually constricting and not allowing the knight to experience the fullness of life and liberation. Mmmmmm...so good.
In addition to this book, I’ve been reading the recently-released First Nations Version of the Psalms and Proverbs. The Psalms feel made for this type of translation and interpretation - giving them the sense of songs and poems shared by storytellers. It is a beautiful honoring both of indigenous peoples and of these ancient songs. And how can you go wrong with a line like this to open Psalm 2?
Why do the nations snort like an angry buffalo?2
How good is that?
And third, music...Jon Batiste and David Wilcox both released new albums over the last week or so and both are just majestic and wonderful. Two songs from these wonderful albums that have been entering into my rotation...(links go to pages where you can hear the songs)
The Beautiful - David Wilcox - Just a deep and wondrous exploration of how art expands our perspectives and opens our hearts
Do It All Again - Jon Batiste - A song that he undoubtedly wrote about his wife, Suleika Jaouad. Makes me think of my dear wife and, if I could sing and make music like Jon B, I’d sing this for her. Poetic, beautiful, and touching.
And then yesterday morning...the spiderwebs at Long Branch...
And Scout walking amongst some beautiful wildflowers at Long Branch during the same walk. And her wildly wagging tail knocked down some webs as she went…sorry spiders…
Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed
Barrows, Anita; Macy, Joanna. A Year with Rilke: Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke (p. 236).. Kindle Edition.
Wildman, Terry M.. First Nations Version Psalms and Proverbs: An Indigenous Bible Translation (p. 4). Kindle Edition.
The intricacy and detailed beauty of tiny creations is almost too much to comprehend. (Glad for your new lens!)
💕