Easing into a new year

Driving a local back road late this morning, we saw something unusual, at least something we’ve neither seen before nor read about. There were a couple of flocks of pheasants and wild turkeys mixed together. It looked like they were picking up gravel from the roadside. With the countryside buried under deep snow, it’s not clear what those birds may be finding to eat these days.

wild turkeys in snow field

Photo by J. Harrington

In our yard the songbirds and woodpeckers continue to freeload at the feeders. The hawk that was hanging around a week or ten days ago seems to have moved on. As the latest really cold spell eases, we’ll get out more often and see who’s up to what. Maybe this year we can avoid severe cabin fever and keep bouts of Seasonally Affective Disorder to a minimum. Getting up and out and off our butt will also help keep our legs in shape. It seems that part of the aging process is an intensified battle in the war against gravity, in both meanings of that word.

My last loaf of bread displayed the results of a lack of practice and engagement and a failure to keep my starter properly refreshed. We won’t repeat it today, but pretend you read [here] Beckett’s quotation on “fail better.” The bread is edible but more toward the heavy, crusty side than I prefer.

One of the Christmas cards we received this year was from the Academy of American Poets. It contained a couple of stanzas from a poem that we finally tracked down in its entirety. You’ll find it below. I’m going to keep it in mind all year. I’m also going to check out  more of the  poet’s work and see if one or more of his books would make a find present for Father’s Day, or, perhaps, a Valentine.

Holding the Light

Stuart Kestenbaum

^{for Kait Rhoads}

Gather up whatever is  
glittering in the gutter, 
whatever has tumbled  
in the waves or fallen  
in flames out of the sky, 

for it’s not only our 
hearts that are broken,  
but the heart 
of the world as well. 
Stitch it back together.  

Make a place where 
the day speaks to the night 
and the earth speaks to the sky. 
Whether we created God 
or God created us 

it all comes down to this: 
In our imperfect world 
we are meant to repair 
and stitch together  
what beauty there is, stitch it  

with compassion and wire.  
See how everything  
we have made gathers  
the light inside itself 
and overflows? A blessing. 

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