Thanks to friend and colleague Bettylynn Stoops in Ottawa, Ontario for sharing this poem. Bettylynn was a participant at an Art of Hosting in November that had focus on holding deep fields. My learning always seems full and rich when in her company. I particularly appreciate the first line, “no, no, there is no going back.” It speaks to me to the deep shifts and lettings go.
A Wendell Berry poem, for contemplation
No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over a grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.
~ Wendell Berry ~
