be honest

Excerpts from Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;--
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.
...
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

-William Wordsworth

IT has been nice outside

which means this blog will probably be wholly ignored until next Winter. But there is a new blog in the works which will follow the implementation of a permaculture design for the farm where I now live (will post link when ready). Below are some pictures of recent work there.

guest post

if a word means whatever a person wants/needs it to mean, how do we speak to each other at all? individual meaning, but collective understanding:

we listen to each others' sounds. but, the word "rain"doesn't sound like rain. everything we say is a symbol--there is no language but figurative language. the word "love" doesn't sound like love. and when a person says "i love you" or "i love your new shoes," the other person knows that the sound means something more than the sound, and each time it means what the speaker needs it to mean.

speaking and listening are just agreeing to try to understand each other. and, if you were to be faced with the exercise of using words--any words--which would you use? and what would you say? this is my answer; i hope you understand.

-s.a.a.