I hope you will treat yourself to the current film, “Philomena.”

In the driveway after a long journey and arriving at the Convent where it all began, Martin observes to Philomena:

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. (T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding-V”)

Neither of them has any idea of how demanding that “end” will be. Neither do we. That is the fierce mystery isn’t it? Endings are “often” staggering beginnings. Continue reading →

In his “Sabbaths: How May A Human Being Come to Rest” poems, Wendell Berry writes:

If we have become incapable
of denying ourselves anything
then all that we have
will be taken from us.        (“XII,” Leavings, Kindle Loc. 128)

Discipline and self-denial are neither valued nor practiced in our current culture. Yet I sense that Berry’s dictum rings true to us. I think that down deep we all see the handwriting on the wall. The future will be one of forced austerity if humanity cannot soon find within itself a resolve to live in harmony with Mother Earth. Continue reading →