A friend emailed me a link to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfZPl4CFEUc&t=6040s
I don't have HBO and may not have heard about this otherwise. A quick check with our public library shows that it is available there on DVD. Maybe some of you have seen this already, given that it was released in 2019. I just finished watching it.
I'm grateful to diverse friends who bring to my attention what needs to be brought to my attention.
At the end of the documentary, Sweet Honey in the Rock sings "We'll Never Turn Back." With a little googling I found that Mavis Staples featured it on an album released in 2007.
THE TRUELOVE
by David Whyte
There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.
I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.
Years ago in the Hebrides,
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of baying seals,
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,
and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them
and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly
so Biblically
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love
so that when
we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and everything confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don’t
because finally
after all this struggle
and all these years
you simply don’t want to
any more
you’ve simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness
however fluid and however
dangerous to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.
*
Oh, I'm sailing away, my own true love ... (Bob Dylan, lyrics from "Boots of Spanish Leather")
Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within (James Baldwin)
If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him (James Baldwin)
Be a light unto yourself; betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth. Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves (Buddha)
