The antidote to exhaustion isn’t rest. It’s wholeheartedness

David Whyte

How to Build an Igloo by Douglas Wilkinson (1949)

"This classic short film shows how to make an igloo using only snow and a knife. Two Inuit men in Canada’s Far North choose the site, cut and place snow blocks and create an entrance--a shelter completed in one-and-a-half hours. The commentary explains that the interior warmth and the wind outside cement the snow blocks firmly together. As the short winter day darkens, the two builders move their caribou sleeping robes and extra skins indoors, confident of spending a snug night in the midst of the Arctic cold!"

How to Build an Igloo by Douglas Wilkinson - NFB

 

No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen

 Alan Watts

 

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays

 Soren Kierkegaard

Exeter (a film by Gerald Budner from 1972)

"Exeter Cathedral in Devonshire, England, is considered to be the finest example of architecture of the Decorated period, 1250-1350. This film rolls back the centuries, unfolding the cathedral's history, showing the refinement of the sculpture that went into its building, from the airy vista of the nave--the longest unbroken stretch of Gothic vaulting in the world--to the vibrant colours of its windows. But more than architecture survives: Exeter is still a living church for the people of today."

Exeter by Gerald Budner - NFB

Dark Turn of Mind - Gillian Welch

Waiting for Death [28/11/20]

 

“Days and weeks, not months” she said.

 

You have been going downhill since the Season of Hope plunged the nation into its

First Lockdown. Perhaps you felt it was hard to go on, like the rest of us.

 

Blood tests in High Summer had us belief you’d die, soon, from lymphoma. It was the

First time I buried and grieved you.

 

Which of your nine lives did you use up to reach this Season of Decay;

Making me cry rivers at the thought of your frail body buried in the cold and dark?

 

Your frame so painfully thin now. You eat little and drink a lot. I patiently clean the carpet,

Wash the blankets and clothes after one of your little ‘mishaps’.

 

I admit it: sometimes I wished it was all over. But, my dear sweetheart, I shall

Miss you so very much.

 

It’s been nearly three weeks now since you came home to die. It’s another Friday afternoon

And we look at each other and declare “She’s not going to die this week!”

 

It’s a torment I wouldn’t miss for the world.