Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, be patient, love the questions,

it's one of those times in life when words and ideas and poetry literally start to seem like bread; like i want to eat them; they are needed; beyond anything else; yes; it is like i need to eat them. how else can i explain? lately i have needed comfort and have taken comfort in the following:

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. . .Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." --Rilke

"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese,
harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things"
--Mary Oliver, from poem "Wild Geese"

"Ecological studies offer a picture of nature less focused on the terrors of combat than on the dance of communal collaboration, a picture of the great web of being. Struggle and death have not disappeared from the natural world, but death is now understood as a factor in the ongoing life of the community rather than a failure in the life of the individual.
This transformation of images of reality--from fragmentation and competition to community & collaboration--has gone on in virtually every academic discipline for the past fifty years."
--Parker Palmer, from book "The Courage to Teach"

those are my comfort words, for now.

and then here are some things that have been happening in my house--



finn is in love with the show Pingu;; here, he watches little sister Pinga be born, for like the hundredth time



and i have begun and almost finished! a penguin-whale-nautical-stars-ocean quilt for finn! or maybe it's just a pieced blanket! nevertheless--



and, finn and i together made Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses bread--recipe from "How to Cook Everything"--and it was so yummy--fresh with butter and cinnamon and honey and peppermint tea--love!




comfort!