Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle curved tunnels of leaf … - Annie Dillard

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There is one thing I have never taught my body how to do and that is to figure out at 6 A. M. what it wants to eat at 6 P. M.

Annie Dillard

Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise.

Darkness, Like, Miners, Tracing, Tunnels, Views

Same Author Quotes

We teach our children one thing only, as we were taught: to wake up. We teach our children to look alive there, to join by words and activities the life of human culture on the planet

Children, Culture, Life, Look, Planet, Teach

Just once I wanted a task that required all the joy I had. Day after day I had noticed that if I waited long enough, my strong unexpressed joy would dwindle and dissipate inside me, like a fire subsiding. . . . Just this once I wanted to let it rip.

Dwindle, Fire, Like, Noticed, Rip, Strong

What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been set down? The texture of the world, its filigree and scrollwork, means that there is the possibility for beauty here, a beauty inexhaustible in its complexity, which opens to my knock, which answers in me a call I do not remember calling, and which trains me to the wild and extravagant nature of the spirit I seek.

Calling, Doe, Knock, Mean, Set, World

Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.

Afternoon, Inspirational, Inspiring, Spend, Take, Time

Johnston's books are beautifully written and among the funniest I have ever read.

Beautifully, Book, Books, Funniest, Written