Trusting the World Again

"I began to trust the world again, not to give me what I wanted, for I saw it could not be trusted to do that, but to give unforeseen goods and pleasures that I had not thought to want."

And so we gathered around another table to feast on the riches of friendship, reading, and Hannah Coulter, and all she could teach us about life. Wendell Berry amazed us with his insight into womanhood, aging, farming, grieving, and much more. It is difficult to give even a glimpse into a book where there is so much to think on. It's a book to be read again and again, soaking in its wisdom, its beauty of words strung together and hung on a line right into our hearts. It met us in ways we never would have dreamed at the time we chose this book for our book club.

"... Little happinesses did come, and they came from ordinary pleasures in ordinary things--the baby, sunlight, breezes, animals and birds, daily work, rest when I was tired, food, strands of fog in the hollow early in the morning, butterflies, flowers ..."

Late into the night we stayed, our thoughts forming words to share about what we took from the book. Talking about small towns, farms, war, our lives in an urban setting, quietness, children leaving our homes ...

"After your expectations have gone their way and your future is getting along the best it can as an honest blank, you shape your life according to what it is. We had a lot of years still ahead of us. It was up to us to make them good, and we did."

I think we will all be visiting Hannah Coulter again.