©IBKimage2013
Oh you beautiful tree of winter standing tall above the alley as I open the garage door to quickly hop into my vehicle for a run to the local coffee shop for my first stop of several on this crisp, snowless, early morning. Thankfully, my camera’s in the house, so I have a chance to reflect on this chance encounter of morning light illuminating your branches while while I go back to retrieve it. Ever so briefly, the moment is available and today, unlike other times, I sense that it’s important to notice. Thank you that I have to look up to appreciate your beauty and presence as you tower over the litter strewn alley and overflowing garbage dumpsters waiting to be emptied of the week’s castoffs. A reminder that light returns after the darkest night and that success often comes from the attention to ordinary everyday acts committed to for a long period of time … Theologian and author Eugene Peterson speaks of a “long obedience in the same direction.”
Wishing you moments of illumination this week.
Your comments regarding last weeks post, as to what you’ve learned from your transitions, are still trickling in, so I’ll share some next week.
IBK
3 Comments
I looked out this early winter dawn at my front yard maples illuminated by a ringed full moon, and then opened your blog to see that sunlit winter tree revealing the same history of ragged winter debris, and the promise of spring in the buds.
A nice place to start my day.
Did you know that Peterson took his “Long obedience” from the following quote by Friedrich Nietzsche: “The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth’ is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.”
I love the truth in that statement.
“Long obedience in the same direction” – I love that. Thanks for sharing the photo and the quote.