Sunday, November 23, 2014

This Morning

This photo is from last autumn. The female died and the male mourned alone all summer. Just a month ago a new female arrived on the pond. It was this new one I thought was icebound yesterday. The male hovered close for hours but late in the day the two of them had moved to the other side of the pond. Such a relief, such joy!

This Sunday's writing prompt was a quote from Leonard Cohen. We were to write a letter to him in response. Here's the quote and my letter.


Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in Leonard Cohen


Dear Mr. Cohen,

I’m sitting with these words of yours this morning, looking out my window to a landscape that is marked with stark and naked branches and drifts of crumpled leaves made restless by a cool wind. I was out there when the light got in, a mere lessening of the darkness at first and then a sudden rush of gold through a crack in the clouds that made my shadow stretch miraculously in front of me.

Dawn was, in a sense, a perfect offering, the opportunity for a whole new day, similar but unlike yesterday, a day when the swans I thought then to be icebound now floated free, their elongated necks entwined in an avian hug. I had no bell to ring but I did breathe a deep sigh made up of relief and pure joy and a kind of gratitude for all things wild.


I should probably come to the day with an offering – perhaps joy and gratitude and yes, relief that I did actually awaken, are not enough? I turn these thoughts over in my mind, looking for the cracks that will let the light in. I think often that I myself am cracked, flawed in a way that pushes light away. Your words make me wonder if I ought not fuss so much about those cracks, that they just might be a place where light not only gets in but rushes back out, flinging gold into dark places.

With gratitude then,

Pauline




Thanks Hilary (and Tabor!)

7 comments:

Out on the prairie said...

Lovey share and thoughts

Tabor said...

Paulene, this is perfect. I love the Cohen rhyme but your response is in the same beautiful mood of hope and acceptance! Thank you.

Barb said...

Pauline, your words are so appropriate. The quote and your thoughts are goid reminders to us all - nobody/nothing is perfect. But, we have gifts to give and recieve all the same.

Hilary said...

Absolutely pure Pauline. And that's about the finest there is... with or without cracks.

Pauline said...

Thanks, OOTP

Tabor - love Leonard Cohen!

and thank you, Barb :)

Hilary, you keep me on my toes :)

Anonymous said...

A perfect response to the quote - and your words definitely flood us all with light! Funny...that's the second time I've read that quote in posts today. It's one of my favorites.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and I'm so happy for the swans!