{"id":496,"date":"2011-01-06T12:23:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T17:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stlydias.org\/blog\/?p=496"},"modified":"2011-01-06T12:23:52","modified_gmt":"2011-01-06T17:23:52","slug":"leavings-xvii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/leavings-xvii\/","title":{"rendered":"Leavings, XVII."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Wendell Berry<\/p>\n<p>Hardly escaping the limitless machines<br \/>\nthat balk his thoughts and torment his dreams,<br \/>\nthe old man goes to his own<br \/>\nsmall place of peace, a patch of trees<br \/>\nhe has lived from many years,<br \/>\nits gifts of a few fence posts and boards,<br \/>\nfirewood for winter, some stillness<br \/>\nin which to know and wait.\u00a0 Used<br \/>\nand yet whole this dear place is, whole<br \/>\nby its own nature and by his need.<br \/>\nWhile he lives it will be whole,<br \/>\nand after him, God willing, another<br \/>\nwill follow in that membership<br \/>\nthat craves the wholeness of the world<br \/>\ndespite all human loss and blame.<\/p>\n<p>In the lengthening shadow he has climbed<br \/>\nagain to the ridgetop and across<br \/>\nto the westward slope to see the ripe<br \/>\nlight of autumn in the turning trees,<br \/>\nthe twilight he must go by now<br \/>\nthat only grace can give.\u00a0 Thus far<br \/>\nhe keeps the old sectarian piety:<br \/>\nBy grace we live.\u00a0 But he can go<br \/>\nno further.\u00a0 Having known the grace<br \/>\nthat for so long has kept this world,<br \/>\nhaggard as it is, as we have made it,<br \/>\nwe cannot rest, we must be stirring<br \/>\nto keep that gift dwelling among us,<br \/>\neternally alive in time.\u00a0 This<br \/>\nis the great work, no other, none harder,<br \/>\nnone nearer rest or more beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<em>Read at St. Lydia&#8217;s on January 2, 2011<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Wendell Berry Hardly escaping the limitless machines that balk his thoughts and torment his dreams, the old man goes to his own small place of peace, a patch of trees he has lived from many years, its gifts of a few fence posts and boards, firewood for winter, some stillness in which to know [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":497,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions\/497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}