I know quite a few people, myself included, who are making major life changes these days, living with the question of what to do next, waiting for the path to become clear.  It’s not a crossroads exactly. More like limbo: all questions, few clues, no answers.  With a timing all its own.

I’ve seen others come through these kinds of times into fertile territory of new — often unexpected— expression and growth. I am heartened by Wendell Berry’s poem The Real Work.

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

It’s a perfect reminder for the hyper-productive, controlled, work-identified times we live in. It takes courage to not have answers, to set out on a path we cannot see…

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3 replies on “Wendell Berry on The Real Work We Do

  1. love this!
    Needed his message.

  2. “The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

    PostIt on the fridge!

  3. It is with great thankfulness that we come together in some kind of hope. Wendell Berry has Been and always will be important in the great Green movement of the 60’s and 70’s. Perhaps it is time to rethink his philosophy and give over to the hope that children can learn a whole new way to be in this world. Thanks for posting. “The impeded stream that sings”.

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