"Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see."
- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ch. 20
We finished Their Eyes Were Watching God in class the other day and I am amazed how this book hits me every year I teach it. I always tell my students to reread their favorite books from childhood because literature doesn't change, they do. Their Eyes is the same every year, but I am not. And in this new, 2.0 version of myself, I find the book to be a touchstone once again for the wisdom that can come from literature.
"Love ain't somethin' lak uh grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore"
In the first month of 2013, I have come to some pretty awesome conclusions and felt compelled to swing out on the trapeze a bit further. What I know for sure is that I want my choices to be impelled by love instead of fear and anger. That is what creates the change I want to see in my life.
"It's uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there...Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves"So my hope for you this February is that you see the life in the meshes of your net. Whether you are young or old, your life is full of lessons and challenges and joys and successes. I am pulling my net in and calling my soul to come see what is next.
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