Practicing resurrection again

 When I think about tracks in new fallen snow, it rarely occurs to me that any are in the "wrong direction". Rather there is a creative purpose to all marks of emergence from the storm no matter how random or circular. Below is a post from another Easter and I am intrigued with a shift in my own perspective, perhaps due to rigorous practice or perhaps due to aging...

The shift is subtle and incorporates what has gone before; it is itself reflective of tracks laid down with purpose even if the purpose was mere wandering. 

Some of the tracks approach the empty tomb; some retreat. However, the thing about tracks is that is difficult to measure or discern the resting, remaining and staying, not to mention the learning. If one were to take an arial perpective of a wilderness journey it would not only reveal beautiful patterns and disjointed meanderings. It would also appear as though an exquisite thread was being woven through and around the path. The practice, the wandering, is the binding up into wholeness, into holiness. 

previous post:

“Be like the fox/who makes more tracks than necessary,/some in the wrong direction./Practice resurrection.” Wendell Berry
After the scuffle of disciples to and from the empty tomb, after testing our doubts again and again, perhaps even after the Ascension, it appears to be our own call to discipleship to practice resurrection. In fact, that may be a way of describing the work of the church. We practice when we worship, when we serve, and when we pray. At some point I like to imagine all our faces, and feet, turned toward the Risen One. Such alignment is not only unlikely but probably not accurate!
As we scurry to seek the Risen One we do so from many directions and many identities. We also go down paths which may seem futile. We go down some paths which seem to feed our doubt not our faith.
I believe, however, that all is fruitful and that doubt feeds faith. I believe that it is in the journey, it is in the practicing, that we deepen our relationship with God.
I know these days I have been wandering, perhaps not like the fox, but certainly in search of something. Wendell Berry’s words have always encouraged me to simply ‘’be” and not worry about efficiency or rightness. So today I am going to “be” in the resurrection time and know that wrong is less important than trying, the mystery more precious than the solution. Blessings on your day, M

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.