reflection, examination, harvest, and the right to roam
this blog is part of a project to help make ideas stick in my own mind, re-learn how to have complex thoughts about them, and share those thoughts with others. I'm catholic, a receptionist and reactor operator, a lifelong pedestrian and cyclist, a bereaved sibling, a new yorker and an oregonian, living in the willamette valley with my husband (A—), our black lab (paul), and our native habitat garden.
the title of this blog is taken from my favorite act of contrition:1
Lord, I confess that there is so much within me that is selfish, and ignoble, and sinful. my little house is in ruins: I cannot repair it. You Yourself must come down to rebuild it, and make it a fit dwelling place for You all the days of my life.
I'm E—, I love to knit, watch movies, read, pray the hours, and walk outside. every spring I'm astounded when the leaves and flowers come back. I savor every opportunity to stir broth, move control rods, or watch a bumblebee.
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I've never found a source for this prayer, and I have no clue where I first learned it. I think it must have been inspired by this passage from the beginning of st. augustine's confessions: "The house of my soul is too small for you to come to it. May it be enlarged by you. It is in ruins: restore it. In your eyes it has offensive features. I admit it, I know it; but who will clean it up? Or to whom shall I cry other than you?"↩