“Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in
the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an
enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy
friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so
self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps
where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this
grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on
the edge of rage.
I won’t have it. The world is wilder than
that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and
bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are
raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.
Go
up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too.
Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock-more
than a maple- a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and
tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You
can’t take it with you.”
Annie Dillard from
Pilgrim At Tinker Creek
