Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee; Not untwist — slack they may be — these last strands of man In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can; Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be. – Gerard Manley Hopkins A week or so agoContinue reading “On Turning 27”
Category Archives: kathrynkong
A New Covenant for a New Day
Come, come, whoever you are, Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times, Come, come again, come. Rumi So I have broken my vow a hundred, a thousand times, but still the Lord says, “Come.” He hasContinue reading “A New Covenant for a New Day”
Dream Seeds
The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. Mark 4:26-27 One year ago, God dropped a seed of a dream for my city in my heart. As withContinue reading “Dream Seeds”
The Blessing in the Breaking
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to beContinue reading “The Blessing in the Breaking”
Impermanence
“Is not impermanence the very fragrance of our days?” – Rainer Maria Rilke The days have shortened, but summer has stretched long. It is mid-October, and the thermometer reads upwards of 80 degrees. I live in a liminal space where the heat beats and time is suspended. My sight turns inward; I move through myContinue reading “Impermanence”
Liminality
Do you see yet? Do you see how to love the wave already breaking because it is a wave? Because it breaks? – Marilyn McEntyre, “Nothing Gold” liminality (n.) The transitional period or phase of a rite of passage, during which the participant lacks social status or rank, remains anonymous, shows obedience and humility, andContinue reading “Liminality”
The Great Homecoming
“You, the great homesickness we could never shake off…” – Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours After I’d left London, well-intentioned strangers tried to forge a connection in our common love for the city. I was skeptical. How could these people, who had spent mere days traveling through, love it as I did? IContinue reading “The Great Homecoming”
Small Things, Simple Things, Nothings
What can anyone give you greater than now, Starting here, right in this room, when you turn around? William Stafford, from “You, Reading This, Be Ready” I dreamed last night I was sitting at K and E’s kitchen table, drinking tea and eating a slice of pear and stem ginger cake. It was cold andContinue reading “Small Things, Simple Things, Nothings”
Pure Autumn Fragrance River
I traveled through time this weekend. In the grey in-between time when light fades fast and crickets start to sing, I sat on a swing in the woods of my childhood home, and I found myself fifteen again on a sad and sleepless night, swinging my sorrows away. In that season, one who loved meContinue reading “Pure Autumn Fragrance River”
Look, I Am Alive
D used to study his hands. He stretched his fingers out wide, curled them into fists. He turned his palms over and back, tracing veins and creases. He said to me, “Look, these are my hands. Look, I’m alive. How strange.” How strange indeed. It is August 29th, 2014, and look, I am alive. *Continue reading “Look, I Am Alive”
