Cornucopia

A Poem and a Sermon

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First, the poem:

VI.
We travelers, walking to the sun, can’t see
Ahead, but looking back the very light
That blinded us shows us the way we came,
Along which blessings now appear, risen
As from sightlessness to sight, and we,
By blessing brightly lit, keep going toward
That blessed light that yet to us is dark.

Wendell Berry, Given: New Poems (Berkeley, CA: Shoemaker Hoard, 2005), 74.

And here is the sermon.

6 comments for “A Poem and a Sermon”

  1. President Eyring addresses directly something I was thinking about yesterday–how often I don’t see the lessons in my daily experience if I can’t make time to write about them, in some form. In the process of stepping out of the hurly burly of onrushing experience, I begin to glimpse what’s actually happening, which, if I’m not careful, I miss completely.

    And of course, this isn’t a new insight. Just something that’s hard to remember.

  2. I love Wendell Berry’s writings. Thanks for posting this. I have thought of ten of Elder Eyring’s request that we find a way to notice God’s hand daily in our lives….now I just need to get going on it.

  3. President Eyring’s conference talk is a variation of one he gave earlier to the staff of the Family and Church History Department . It gives us a window into how President Eyring uses his own historical experiences to move him closer to the Lord. History as spiritual tool is an approach that is common in scripture, and indeed in the use of history by many(most?) non-Western cultures. I’m reminded of how Navajos use history as a healing tool in much this same way. This approach brings an intimacy and relevency to history that is often missing in some contemporary academic history.

    Thanks again for posting the poem and President Eyring’s talk. It made my day.

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