the silence that surrounds

acrylic on canvas

I had learned what I knew, 

the bare outline of the event, 

without asking questions,

 both fearing the pain that I knew surrounded the story 

and honoring the silence that surrounded the pain.

-Wendell Berry, That distant Land

us

watercolor on fabriano paper

“How joyful to be together, alone

as when we first were joined...

... except that now we know

each other, as we did not then;

and now instead of two stories fumbling

to meet, we belong to one story

that the two, joining, made. And now

we touch each other with the tenderness

of mortals, who know themselves”

― Wendell Berry, Entries

sharing at PaintPartyFriday

turning

watercolor on aquaboard

“It is to be broken. 
It is to be torn open.
It is not to be reached 
and come to rest in

ever.
 I turn against you,

I break from you, 
I turn to you.

We hurt,
 and are hurt,

and have each other for healing.

It is healing.
 It is never whole.” 

― Wendell Berry, The Collected Poems, 1957-1982

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how little it takes

                                           

                                                           watercolor on aquaboard

                                       “Again I resume the long

                                        lesson: how small a thing

                                         can be pleasing, how little

                                         in this hard world it takes

                                          to satisfy the mind

                                            and bring it to its rest.”

                                                   ― Wendell Berry, Sabbaths

                                                     Sharing at PaintPartyFriday

hush... and hear...

watercolor

Best of any song 

is bird song

in the quiet, but first

you must have the quiet.

- Wendell Berry, A timbered Choir 1997(I) 

sharing at PPF

when there is not comfort...

watercolor

"I had been sent perhaps 
with the hope that seeing me might be of some comfort to her, 
but I remember how swiftly I knew 
that she could not be comforted.  
Comfortlessness had come and occupied the house.  
She had been felled, 
struck down, 
and there she was, 
greatly needing comfort 
where there was no comfort."
~ Wendell Berry, A World Lost

Sharing at PPF