Timeless Town

All day reading Madame Guyon’s book “A Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer.” She was imprisioned for writing it.

By the fire with a pencil, I draw a dot beside each line I’m drawn to. She uses the words “experimental” and “aromatic” to describe God.

This is on my mind as I am processing many pounds of mint on my kitchen counter. I like texts that tell me what to do, an inner monologue follows that’s like; sure I could do that, or, what? why would you want anyone to do that?

Here are some lines I liked:

“even though all you do in life is to wait in a spirit humiliated, abandoned, resigned…”

“for years contemplate a single mystery. this simple view recollects the soul.”

“love and then do what you want.” (she’s quoting here St. Augustine)

“abandonment is the key to the interior.”

I’m reading A Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer because a painter I love, Arthur Dow, was the first to translate it into English. How he came to do this is really a wonderful story. When he was a teenager, he loved to go to the local library because he was curious about many things. The librarian, Lydia, loved his curiosity and mentioned that her brother was a pretty curious guy too. She set them up as pen pals. Lydia’s brother couldn’t speak French and asked if Arthur would translate this Madame Guyon’s text into English. Many years later, Arthur was painting in France. Lydia’s brother came to stay with him for a while because his wife had become the leader of a cult and he had become frightened of her. Stories really are quite something.

Anyway I’ve been taking the leaves off all this mint, I’m going to make a sauce. I’m out of garlic unfortunately. So I go into town and I listen to a song while I’m driving. The song is so beautiful, I think I have to tell someone about it. Fog steams up the windshield and for a complete second I can’t see a thing. This is the song:

Many horrifying things occupying my mind… this song made me happy and I just had to tell you about it.