Sabbath Rest

As we have been working hard putting together the Companioning Conference, other things have fallen to the side. Now that the conference is over - a beautiful time shared by all - we can reflect on both the event, the preparation, and God’s delight in the midst.

The day after the conference, a dear friend shared this poem with me and it has presented an invitation to rest and to rest well. May it offer the same for you…

If you feel so inclined - I would love to hear what you notice in these words. Feel free to add them in the comments below. Let’s reflect on this beautiful poem together.

Sabbath V, 1985 - Wendell Berry

How long does it take to make the woods?
As long as it takes to make the world.
The woods is present as the world is, the presence
of all its past and of all its time to come.
It is always finished, it is always being made, the act
of its making forever greater than the act of its destruction.
It is a part of eternity, for its end and beginning
belong to the end and beginning of all things,
the beginning lost in the end, the end in the beginning.

What is the way to the woods, how do you go there?
By climbing up through the six days’ field,
kept in all the body’s years, the body’s
sorrow, weariness, and joy. By passing through
the narrow gate on the far side of that field
where the pasture grass of the body’s life gives way
to the high, original standing of the trees.
By coming into the shadow, the shadow
of the grace of the strait way’s ending,
the shadow of the mercy of light.
​
Why must the gate be narrow?
Because you cannot pass beyond it burdened.
To come into the woods you must leave behind
the six days’ world, all of it, all of its plans and hopes.
You must come without weapon or tool, alone,
expecting nothing, remembering nothing,
into the ease of sight, the brotherhood of eye and leaf.
Wendell Berry, Sabbaths, (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1987) 88-89.