'Andy could not have understood his father until he had understood his grandfather.'
Wendell Berry, Marce Catlett, p.110.
Saturday, 15 November 2025
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO COME HOME
'What was his homecoming like for Andy? It was like being naked and cold and then getting into his clothes.'
Wendell Berry, Marce Catlett, p.106.
TRUE MEMBERSHIP
'The followed the only rule of membership: When any of them needed help, the otehrs came to help. By extension of their one rule, there was no "settling up." All help was paid for in advance by the knowledge that there would be no end to anybody's need for help, which would be given to the limit of life and strength.'
Wendell Berry, Marce Catlett, p.106.
THE SUFFERINGS THAT COME FROM FRIENDSHIP
'Jim Stedman then felt in his heart one of the hardest of human sufferings: the wish to help his friend more than he knew he could.'
Wendell Berry, Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story, p.25.
THE MIRACLE OF THE ORDINARY
'When God does something awe-inspiring one time, we call it a miracle. When he does it a billion times, we call it ordinary. Look a little closer, and you'll see that "ordinary" is just another word for the miracles God decided to repeat. And he repeats them on purpose - the natural world is overflowing all around us with a constant stream of God's language, with never-ending messages from our Creator.'
Seth Lewis, The Language of Rivers and Stars, p.159.
BEAUTY IS GOD'S HANDWRITING
'Never lose an oppurtnity of seeing anything beautiful. Beauty is God's hand-writing - a wayside sacrament: welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank Him for it, the fountain of all loveliness, and drink it in, simply and eaernestly, with all your eyes; it is a charmed draught, a cup of blessing.'
Charles Kingsley in Seth Lewis, The Language of Rivers and Stars, p.155.
WHY NATURE CONNECTS US TO GOD
'The reason why we so often feel closer to God in nature is because nature is specifically designed to bring us close to God.'
Seth Lewis, The Language of Rivers and Stars, p.151.
OUR FANTASIES ARE DERIVATIVE
'Our fantasy stories are remixed realities - they take the things we are familiar with and enhance or rearrange them to get our attention. The real world is the original mix, and it's far more creative than our stories.
Which is more fantastical: a horse with a horn or horse with a six-foot-long neck, and a bunch of giant freckles? Does it seem more likely for the real world to contain a large lizard that breathes fire or a small bug whose backside is a light bulb? Does it seem more plausible that a pumpkin could turn into a carriage or that a caterpillar could melt itself into goo and rebuld itself into a flying work of art?
The truth is stanger than fiction, and there's a good reason why: the creativity of our fantasies is only a subset of the creativity of God. Even our most imaginative stories are built on God's much more imaginitive realities. Who would have dreamed a mouse that flies in the dark using sonar and sleeps upside down? Who would have thought of filling the nortern sky with shining rivers of green and blue? God. That's who.'
Seth Lewis, The Language of Rivers and Stars, p.48.
GOD SPEAKS TWO LANGUAGES
'Communication is relational. God did not have to speak to us. He communicates because he wants to reveal himself. He gave his word and his world to invite us to know relate to him. He gave this invitation in two languages, and the completeness and clarity of the language of Scripture has not diminished our need to hear God's word in creation as well. Scripture itself is filled with references to God's world - from mountains and stars to sparrows and wild flowers and the morning mist that evaporates in the rising sunshine. God never intended for us to choose one language and ignore the other.'
Seth Lewis, The Language of Rivers and Stars: How Nature Speaks of the Glories of God, p.32.
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