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Kathryn Ruth Schuth

New Dirt

 

 

Look at your hands. They may hold nothing.

Yet they hold the planing of wood, and the picking up of a stone

To skip three times across the river

And the holding of another hand, dry and cracked, but comfortable

Across a divide.

They certainly have no issue with pulling the husks off of the sweet corn

And tossing them into a pile where they will eventually become new dirt

 

Put your clever hands over your eyes and give in to the darkness

This darkness which clarifies the normal richness of all you see

So much richness that every item you see becomes a thing

Of greater beauty the more that you examine it.

 

Nothing is required of you to make beauty happen except that you notice.

 

phoyo 

 


Published Monday, January 25, 2010 12:08 AM by Kathryn Ruth

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Beth Patterson said:

What a beautiful tribute to showing up, Kathryn!  

I love this--especially "Put your clever hands over your eyes and give in to the darkness.'...the darkness that clarifies.

lovely--thank you!

And thank you for the tip of your hat on your FB page.  I'm learning the techniques of long distance arm twisting, for sure.

January 24, 2010 9:45 PM
 

tania said:

I love the idea of celebrating our brokenness.  I get the impression that your writing is more like something that just came threw you rather than something you had to think about and edit a million times.  As a gardener and avid composter, New Dirt spoke to me of the joy of my diggings and how it is during my "dirt therapy sessions" that the bruises and scars seem to disappear.

January 30, 2010 12:12 AM
 

Kathryn Ruth said:

tania! your impression is spot on and made me laugh in complete recognition! i just told Beth yesterday that what I could use more than anything is a better internal editor, or a willingness to at least edit, say, once, if not a million times.  your 'dirt therapy' take on it opened my eyes a bit - yeah, the joy of diggings. some dirt joy.

Beth - "a tribute to showing up", yes that, when i hadn't thought of it in that way.

January 30, 2010 1:10 PM

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About Kathryn Ruth

Garrison Keillor said in one of his stories, “It is where we are broken that we are at our most useful.” This, suddenly, I realize is one of the things that I love the very most, in people, in relationships, in cities, in communities – this celebration of brokenness in the ongoing Phoenix-rising of lifting it up and transforming new life from the ashes – indeed – using the ashes. Trying to fix broken things, not by discarding them, but by appreciating the beauty of their brokenness – and working from there.
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