Many Happy Returns of the Day

It’s Wendell Berry’s birthday today.

I love how he talks about this writing room and it’s 40-pane window in the long-legged house. My own writing room has 40 panes with a view out to the West Hills.

Standing at the cusp of another school year seems like a wonderful time to share this selection from the Sabbath poems read by the birthday boy himself:

Whatever Is Foreseen In Joy by Wendell Berry

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

Here are a few more reading recommendations from Wendell.