on nature

"Then one day I was walking along Tinker Creek thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with the lights in it. I saw a backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame. I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance. The flood of fire abated, but I'm still spending the power. Gradually the lights went out in the cedar, the colors died, the cells unflamed and disappeared. I was still ringing. I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck."
ANNIE DILLARD, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek from Seeing

I love reading Annie Dillard more than I can say.
Her words are thoughtful and deep and at times literally take my breath away. Since the first time I read Dillard - during my time in living in Brooklyn - the outside world has been a much more vibrant place. I have always been a person that is very aware of what is going on around me, always looking, seeking, analyzing, but Dillard challenged me to look even closer - to get down on my hands and knees, lay on the ground if I have to. Nature has definitely always been a place where God woos and surprises me, but Dillard gave words to those experiences that so captured what I could previously not express. Camping this weekend reminded me that I still need to finish Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Like anything overwhelming and good, I have had to take this book in stages. Letting it sink in slowly - savor every word.

Today, I stumbled upon brooklyn band, The Secret Life of Sophia's song Outside. It's beautiful and haunting and seems the perfect background to a little quality time with Ms.Dillard.

{Download a copy here}