Andrew J. Newell:

At the heart of this moment, and of many such moments in Buechner’s writing, is a barely-spoken revelation of that which we take most for granted: the marvellous procession of all things out from their first cause. The seed, found situated in friendly earth; the hidden germination of its heart; the slow and steady downward reach of its roots towards deep treasuries of moisture and nutrients; the upward search of the sprout until, finally, it scents air above and unfurls its face to the residual heat and light of a myriad hydrogen protons smashing into one another at the core of a sun that burns at twenty-seven million degrees Fahrenheit ninety-three million miles away. Radiating through the empty vestibules of space and terminating on the outspread palms of the seedling’s leaves, the light meets favourably with air that is itself the collective sigh of all plants everywhere, and with water droplets borne from distant seas along the secret pathways of the wind. Thus, seedling becomes sapling, and the sapling — grown to maturity, its wooden arms outstretched and bearing fruit — is the product and continuation of a miracle. […]

Standing in a pulpit before the “cultured despisers” of his day, the upturned faces of staff and students alike, he returns time and again to this message — the ordinary, for Buechner, is extraordinary enough to exhaust the mind with holy wonder at the work and presence of God. […]

[Jesus] ate, he drank, he sat down and walked around, and the soft footfall of his feet of flesh upon the earth left imprints in the ordinary way. He was ‘the gardener, a stranger coming down the road behind us’, and he ate meals ‘like any other meal’, and this was enough to flood the world with light.

Early-rising blue heron enjoying a misty morning sunrise after the storm on the southern tip of Damariscotta Lake

“The practice of nepsis is counter-cultural. Social media, politics, culture wars, pop culture, influencers, pundits, prognostications, and even personal mental health are focused on the “BIG picture”, global political, cultural, and environmental issues, things over which we have no individual control. But nepsis calls on us to be aware, not of global issues but the issue of how I put my silverware in the sink.”

Ask and you shall receive!

This was great, and it could not have worked out better even if I had sent Geoffrey West a letter. Worth your time.

Pictures and video often, if not always, fall short of the reality of any experience. But this was by far the most uncapturable experience we have had.

That. Was. Cool.

Ice cream = well-being

As part of my print-to-read effort, I may have geeked out a little over this “print as pamphlet” option that I’ve only just now discovered. 🖨️📄🤓

“His architecture clearly expresses his beliefs through the modular structure and the simplicity of its form. Yet, it does not dictate activities, rather it enables people to shape their own lives within his buildings with elegance, normality, poetry and joy.”

Serene on Mount Chocorua (2019)