I always get up and make a cup of coffee while it is still dark—it must be dark—and then I drink the coffee and watch the light come…. Writers all devise ways to approach that place where they expect to make the contact, where they become the conduit, or where they engage in this mysterious process. For me, light is the signal in the transition. It’s not being in the light, it’s being there before it arrives. It enables me, in some sense.
~ Toni Morrison, excerpted from Roderick MacIver’s Art As a Way of Life
Notes:
- Poem: Thank you Roderick MacIver
- Photo: Kat Mix (via Banished From Camelot).
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
The woman is magic. I used to see her walking across campus at Princeton and feel awed. She has *such* a presence–her role as ‘conduit’ is easily embraced…
Princeton, what a campus. Her presence and it’s presence, equally magnificent.
yes, i identify with every word of this –
Yes, us morning hawks do…
To watch the light arrive…special.
what a wonderful way to begin the day!
It’s a beautiful time of day. Very peaceful.
Morrison & MacIver, now that is one combination that shakes the ground under my feet.
I’m ashamed to say it was years before I found out MacIver is not only a painter, but a writer as well.
I’m not a writer, but I have to be up that time of the day, to watch the light come…
Me too. Me too.
We engineer the place of contact—set out all the Runes, drink the potion, face the proper Direction. We are Sorcerers crossing our fingers.
Smiling. Love this POV.