About a year ago, Kathy and I picked up her mom about an hour away from where we live and drove her to the hospital for tests. She is non-verbal, but it does not mean she does not communicate. It was early morning and the sun lit up fields of freshly cut hay in furrows and bales.
Despite the early hour, about 6:00 AM, the scene was spectacular. Suddenly, I sensed movement beside me and turned to see Kathy’s mom waving her arm, smiling, and trying to form words. I think the treasures of those bright fields lit up the day for her filling her with rich memories reminding her of early mornings on the farm.
R. S. Thomas reminds us we live in each moment, not in dim futures and idealized pasts. There is brightness in moments when we realize that even when something cannot be spoken and words fail us, its essence is communicated and shines like a sun illuminating each field we pas in life.
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
The title of your post had a valuable meaning and important in our life.
I am glad it found a space.
Very beautiful post! I particularly love the last verse of the poem.
Thank you.
The idea of light always resonates with me. This poem captures the essence of light nicely. On the same note, I was listening to John Denver today, “Sunshine almost always makes me high,” and found myself tearing up as always. John and I must be kindred spirits because I feel the same way.
Michael Franti has a song called the Sound of Sunshine which is similarly uplifting.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’m not familiar with him, but will check it out on iTunes.
Life and light…it’s what life is all about, both a destination and a reward. I loved the poem and the memory.
Both a destination and reward; that is a lovely combination Marie.
Thanks so much!
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your story.
You are welcome and thank you.
Treasured moments, recaptured.
Thank you for the lovely comment.
Beautiful! I often find plants in the woods that are lit by a single ray of sunshine as. if they are in the spotlight and want you to find and admire them.
We need to appreciate the artistry of great gardening.
“Seeing or experiencing” the bright moment is often what remains with me when I begin a painting….inspiration that is like a radiant memory of a fleeting moment, incomparable and without words.
Artists have to experience things and then re-experience them again in their art whether it is painting, poetry, carving, etc. What is so intriguing is how clearly they experience the phenomena at hand.
This is true…not sure how or why this happens; maybe a right brain thing. Doesn’t really matter…its just sufficient that it happens.
That is true, it is sufficient that it happens.
Beautiful post and I loved the poem.I agree completely with RS Thomas
Thank you Katherine.