life between the pages

“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

most excellent advice

This passage from the Living Bible, Phillipians 4:6-11, was found by by his wife, Nelle, on the dresser of my uncle, Daniel B. Bridges, AIA, NCARB the day after his death Sept. 12, 1977:

DON'T WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING; INSTEAD, PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING. TELL GOD YOUR NEEDS AND DON'T FORGET TO THANK HIM FOR HIS ANSWERS. IF YOU DO THIS YOU WILL EXPERIENCE GOD'S PEACE, WHICH IS FAR MORE WONDERFUL THAN THE HUMAN MIND CAN UNDERSTAND. HIS PEACE WILL KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS AND YOUR HEARTS QUIET AND AT REST AS YOU TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST.
o o o
FIX YOUR THOUGHTS ON WHAT IS TRUE AND GOOD AND RIGHT. THINK ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE PURE AND LOVELY, AND DWELL ON THE FINE GOOD THINGS IN OTHERS. THINK ABOUT ALL YOU CAN PRAISE GOD FOR AND BE GLAD ABOUT.

My uncle's accident came during a time when I had already experienced the death of several persons close to me. This news was devastating to our family; but hope arrived with the words that soon went buzzing through our ranks: "Did you hear of the note? Nelle found a note... it's as if he left it to comfort us, or to assure us, or something." I can't tell you how many times reading these words in my uncle's strong, bold, architect's hand has made me feel better. There have also been many times when I forgot this wisdom. It would do me good every day to read them, or something like Thoreau's similar wisdom, from his days at Walden: "Finish each day and be done with it, no doubt some absurdities crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely."

Without hope, man is a doomed creature. Feel the freshet of ebullience in your heart, and let it make you a glad spirit. Oh, and by-the-by, I hear it boosts your immunity, too. Let your science and your faith collide.... and a fifth element is born.

5 comments:

Genuine Lustre said...

What a great Thoreau quote - refrigerator magnet material.

What's become of the VV website Sophie? I wanted to pass on your essay to someone.

susannah eanes said...

hi polly,
we let the url expire as we are morphing at the moment. i will be happy to post the essay on traditional garments here --may generate some thoughts from others as well.
thanks for writing.

RaeS said...

That's a lovely photograph! Did you take it? It's hard to get clouds just so.

susannah eanes said...

i did. it's at hill top at the borough over the tree farm. altho' i think the clouds had more to do with it than any skill i have. how are your photo efforts coming?

RaeS said...

I haven't been working too much on them lately. I need to take pictures of some of my knitting next week so I can enter a calendar contest by August 1st. The grand prize is about $50 worth of knitting goodies. Other than that, I've been trying to tweak some of the pictures from Christmas in PhotoShop... the ones of the kids at TK and Jim's house. They didn't come out as well as I had hoped - too grainy. As long as they aren't blown up at all, they aren't too bad. And one of David in a sea of unwrapped presents and paper looks a bit like a Norman Rockwell painting, I think. I'm going to try to get them uploaded to my website as soon as they're finished.