intricacy and newness
Posted on Jun 18th, 2008
by 
Laura
Laura
I've been going through old notebooks, correspondence, magazines, and such today. stacks and piles have been discarded but I ran across so much. Poems I wrote, cards, letters, addresses, journals, notebooks from classes I took, copies of articles. It's a list poem really, this trove of words. One of the things that has made me smile is a birthday card I received last year from my friend Stephen in Coventry, Rhode Island. Inside the card Stephen had typed up a passage from Annie Dillard's book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek so that the words form themselves into a found poem of sorts. Here is what he sent me. Perfect words for me today.
Intricacy is that which is given
from the beginning, the birthright,
and in intricacy is the hardiness
of complexity that ensures
against the failure of all life.
Anything can happen; any pattern
of speckles may appear
in a world ceaselessly bawling with newness.
Intricacy is that which is given
from the beginning, the birthright,
and in intricacy is the hardiness
of complexity that ensures
against the failure of all life.
Anything can happen; any pattern
of speckles may appear
in a world ceaselessly bawling with newness.
Access: Public
annie dillard
August 2008 
“Anything can happen; any pattern
of speckles may appear
in a world ceaselessly bawling with newness.”
What I love about this photo is how a bird sees the top of a light fixture as a perfect place to build a nest; whereas most of us humans would find a thousand reasons why that would be the most inappropriate place to live. It speaks to me about my tendency to talk myself out of taking risks or thinking outside the box.
Yes, I know what you mean. I seem to be dabbling a lot lately in reading about writing, and another thing I've run across is a book called Fingerpainting on the Moon. The author writes about how to “feed our hungry ghosts.” It's all about letting ourselves take those risks despite our anxieties. He actually suggests a ritual for propitiating/derailing/subduing those nagging inner critics that would have us believe that we don't have anything to say or will never get organized enough to write coherently. I will write more about this in my blog very soon. Thanks for your kind comment.
Hi Laura and Catherine…..
I've been experiencing criticism at my workplace for being too productive and offering too much help to my co-workers some of who, it has been brought to my attention, resent how quickly I befriended our new computer system and how easily I seem to get it to do just what I need it to do. it occurs to me that worse things could happen to me. so now– I have to ask myself– should I dumb myself down, so as not to incur jealousy or resentment from some unnamed others? or should I try to figure out how to bring them up and up and up, without coming across as a know it all?
somehow this blog speaks to that.
“Anything can happen; any pattern
of speckles may appear
in a world ceaselessly bawling with newness.”
makes me glad I didn't just sit around griping about the change and instead embraced it and made it work for me. I haven't had to subdue as many inner critics as external critics. I think I'll just be compassionate with those external ones too.
thanks for the food for thought– I hadn't really decided how to manage this situation until I started typing my comment here. sometimes (often actually) reading and commenting here on gaia helps me come to better decisions in my “real” life.
I'm glad that happened for you, Dawn. a friend of mine last night, someone who's had tinnitis for years and who has dealt with it pretty heroically, spoke of viewing situations as circumstances rather than problems. sounds simple but is hard for me. thank you for your thoughts here. they're lucky to have you there where you work, and I can't imagine that they don't know that.