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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year

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St. Francis Preaching to the Birds (detail), Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337)

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NATURE AS MIRROR

Can you feel the spiritual ecology we’ve been talking about? If you live in a fully connected world, you’re saved every day, just by playing your part. You are grabbed by God, and you belong to this universe, along with everything else. I was recently feeling discouraged and irritated, and I went out to my garden and spotted a green “stick bug” happily chewing on my flowers, almost completely camouflaged next to the stem. This bug’s simple but amazing existence completely took away all of my negativity. Life was again wondrous and miraculous.

At a recent retreat I gave on the Scottish island of Iona—which was the center point for the diffusion of Celtic Christianity—the attendees remarked how the Celtic "knot" was found on most crosses, gravestones, in manuscripts, and on jewelry. It was apparently their artistic way of saying that all is connected, everything belongs, and all is one in God. They knew about ecosystems long before we did. ALL was held together inside the divine knot that made it one.

T.S. Eliot ends his famous "Four Quartets" quoting Dame Julian, and saying the same: “And all shall be well and / All manner of thing shall be well / When the tongues of flame are in-folded / into the crowned knot of fire.”

From Richard Rohr: In the Footsteps of Francis: Awakening to Creation

#St. Francis #St. Francis Preaching to the Birds #Giotto di Bondone #Nature as Mirror #Cetic Christianity #Celtic knot #T.S.Eliot #Richard Rohr #quotes

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uwhe-arts · 1 month

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daydreaming . . . | uwhe-arts

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notbecauseofvictories · 6 days

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I'm re-reading the Discworld series for reasons, and honestly the most relatable part of reading these as an adult is how many of the protagonists start out being tired, used to their little routine and vaguely disgruntled by the interruption of the Plot. Sam Vimes wants to lie drunk in a gutter and absolutely doesn't want to be arresting dragons. Rincewind is yanked into every situation he's ever encountered, though he'd much rather be lying in a gutter too. (Minus the alcohol. Plus regretting everything he's ever done said witnessed or even heard about fourth-hand in his whole life.) Granny Weatherwax is deeply suspicious of foreign parts and that includes the next town over; Nanny has leaned into the armor of "nothing ever happens to jolly grannies who terrorize their daughters-in-law and make Saucy Jokes"

Only the young people don't seem to have picked up on this---and that's fortunate, because someone has to run around making things happen, if only so Vimes and Granny and Rincewind have a reason to get up (complaining bitterly the whole time) and put it all to rights. Without Carrot, Margrat, Eric, etc. these characters don't have that reason; they're likely to stay in the metaphorical gutter and keep wondering where it all went wrong or why anything has to change.

............well, that's not quite true. You get the sense that Vetinari knows how much certain people hate the Plot. And as the person sitting behind the metaphorical lighting board of Ankh-Morpork, he takes no small pleasure in forcing the Plot-haters specifically to stand up, and say some lines.

#I finished guards guards just yesterday and I forgot that vimes and wonse were set up to be mirror images #both boys from the shades of very different natures; who made good (ish) in wildly different ways #also it's interesting reading this books from an adult perspective; my mind isn't blown that these books exist #anymore; plus I've read so many good books since #and they're not perfectly constructed novels! especially these early books;#there are plenty of spots where I can feel the narrative get thin; where there's more handwaving than I remember #but each book IS better and tighter; the jokes are funnier and the irony sharpens; the footnotes are better utilized #the characters are getting more interesting and complicated as opposed to set-ups for jokes.#it's an illustration of someone getting better at their chosen field and that in itself is more impressive than I was anticipating.#discworld

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titaniaorion · 2 months

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