Of a certain age...

My deadline for this column was looming and I was flat out of inspiration and ideas. I spent a good 48 hours casting about for an appropriate topic. Oftentimes, at the 11th hour, I will hear a random comment, have a conversation with someone, or read a passage that speaks to me. Sometimes, like my trip to the beach last month, an occurrence in my life provides the perfect segue into a column. But not this time - until I found myself staring at a quote that has been on my refrigerator for months.

It spoke to me when I first read it and it tapped me on the shoulder again in that moment, speaking of muses and impediments.

It is a quote from Wendell Berry, an American novelist, poet, professor, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. At 80 years of age he is a man of conscience and conviction, often at odds with the times in which we live. His writing reflects his belief that we, as a society, are losing the very things that matter most (our land, our moral compass, our obligation to our fellow human), to our unquenchable desire for modernization, technology, and the almighty dollar. He is a staunch defender of the natural environment, which is how I first became acquainted with his work.

The moral significance of his writing and the integrity of the man himself is finding new and expanding favor with those among us who desire a less complicated world, where a person's word means something, where our relationship to the land is as gentle stewards, and our concern is as great for the welfare of others as it is for ourselves,

Every time I read anything by Berry, my convictions are strengthened and I don't feel so hopeless in the face of the screaming headlines and the non-stop newscasts replaying the horrors of man's basest nature. My little piece of paradise here in Sisters keeps me sane, but it's sometimes difficult to not have the daily news give rise to disturbing angst. It is that very disturbance which prods me to positive action and refocusing my own moral compass and my own daily actions. My discomfort with the condition of the world encourages me to move with kindness, courtesy, and generosity in my corner of the universe.

Berry's quote helps to redirect me when so much seems to be chaos and carnage. I share it with you, hoping it offers you encouragement.

"There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say, 'It is yet more difficult than you thought.' This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings."