Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Aaaaahhh . . .

Remember the sound of the Nestea plunge? That's how I've felt since Sunday at noon. On Sunday, I took Mowgli to the airport to send him back to NC, sent Boo off on a Spring Break mission trip and then left with my sweetie for two nights in San Antonio. We meandered on the Riverwalk, ate two fabulously self-indulgent dinners (steak one night, fish the next), took naps and remembered what it was like to be on vacation!

I took my new camera and spent quite a bit of time learning to use it but ended up not taking any real photos because it turned out that I wanted to be unencumbered and that meant not even carrying a camera. So no photos here . . . instead, I want to leave you with a quote from the book I took with me--Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. I have to say, I am going to carry the memory of this book with me for the rest of my life. I'm stunned that I never found it before now.

Anyway, Hannah speaks about the intimacy of a long marriage this way:

The room of love is another world. You go there wearing no watch, watching no clock. It is the world without end, so small that two people can hold it in their arms, and yet it is bigger than worlds on worlds, for it contains the longing of all things to be together, and to be at rest together. You come together to the day's end, weary and sore, troubled and afraid. You take it all into your arms, it goes away, and there you are where giving and taking are the same, and you live a little while entirely in a gift. The words have all been said, all permissions given, and you are free in the place that is the two of you together. What could be more heavenly than to have desire and satisfaction in the same room?

Beautiful.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just bought this book last Thursday. Shar flew in for a visit last Thursday from WA and she was reading it and COULD NOT stop talking about it. So we HAD to go to B & N and get it! Can't wait to start reading it based on yours and her reactions! Glad you have had some time with C and some down time. You have needed it!

When are we going to the bakery? I can coordinate my schedule with yours!!! I'm READY!!!! Miss you!

Anonymous said...

OH Yes!!!!
Thanks for putting up your book list again! I have MISSED it!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. It all sounds so restful and good. Glad you got away with your honey.