“What I stand for is what I stand on.”
– Wendell Berry
Today, August 5th, we celebrate the birthday of extraordinary poet, writer and farmer Wendell Berry. Born in 1934, his wisdom and writing has transformed and guided everyone who has stumbled across his books or listened to him speak.
Tonight, I am honored to be invited to attend a birthday celebration at Knoll Farm in Fayston, Vermont to sit and share food at a long table, to bask in the evening glow of a summers last light, and to truly know the importance of the garden and how it connects us to the earth.
We’ve been asked to bring a favorite quote to share. There are so many, both long and short. Since I’ll only be able to share just one, thought it would be a good use of this space to share a few to read over and over again, as a reminder that, as Wendell writes, “The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”
“The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know that the garden is healthy and remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating.”
“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”
“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”
“You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it.”
“Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation.
“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”
“What I stand for is what I stand on.”
“And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.”
