Excuses, excuses...

My excuse for not posting in so incredibly long is that I've been having work-related wrist issues, and that typing at home on my laptop could only serve to aggravate matters. I have now changed computers, the better to blog with, and so, hello, I'm back.

As a proof of my goodwill here's a Merton quote that is sort of a mission statement for myself and this kinda silly but really rather grand online pursuit:

"My own personal task is not simply that of poet and writer; it is basically to praise God out of an inner circle of silence, gratitude, and 'awareness.' This can be done in a life that apparently accomplishes nothing. Without centering on accomplishment or nonaccomplishment, my task is simply the breathing of this gratitude from day to day, in simplicity, and for the rest turning my head to whatever comes, work being part of praise, whether splitting wood or writing poems, or best of all simple notes."


And here's a new Mary Oliver poem for your delight and thrill:

Song of the Builders

On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God--

a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.
How great was its energy
how humble its effort.
Let us hope

it will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.