Daily Nourishment for July 31, 2024: Sitting with “The Bog” by Yudel Huberman with Guidance from Lauren Winner
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 50 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
All month, our pauses and practices have been organized in response to the Glen workshop, a workshop hosted by Image journal. The workshop has now concluded, and I have been going back to old issues of Image. This last Glen-focused reflection is inspired by one of my favorite pieces, “The Bog” by Yudel Huberman, a forester who grew up in a Hasidic Jewish community. - Lauren Winner
Pause.
For a few minutes, sit, while allowing your breath to deepen and slow, with this short extract from Huberman’s essay:
“What was empty is slowly refilled. No outlet, just rain and evaporation. Simple.”
Perhaps repeat those words over and over, with your quiet inner voice, as you breathe in and breathe out.
Prompt.
A bit later on in the essay—read this twice, perhaps once silently and once aloud:
“[W]e use instruments to measure temperature, acidity, water levels month by month, year by year. Keep careful records. Dredge from the depths what is no longer secret. Leave all that a moment. The path is strewn with gray-yellow aspen leaves reflecting dusk’s light, a corridor where I prepare to be received.”
What careful record-keeping do you need to, or want to leave for a moment?
Continue to breathe deeply as you read.
“November 22. This morning I woke, and the bog had frozen. Frost covered sedges. Thick slashes in the ice, every which way, like knife cuts, where it imperfectly stitched itself together. From the shadows, steam rises from Labrador tea leaves like passing fog. But head-on in the sun each water droplet is visible, moving rapidly like snow in a mountain gale, slowing, then speeding up again. For a moment the air dries, and my view into the bog is clear, shafts of sun on ice. Then the droplets rise once more.”
Practice.
Huberman wrote that frozen-morning reflection in late autumn. In May, he wrote:
“By the time I return, the gradual transformation of seasons has passed. The blueberry flowering is over, and green, budlike berries await their ripening. Mosses send up forests of brown sporophytes. Kalmia sprinkles fuchsia throughout the bog. The mallard pair has returned to nest. The male, beak tucked backward into its breast, eyes me with a slow blink. And in the meadow and woodland mix between my house and the bog I am greeted by a forgotten verdant green. Passover was over. I had worried about missing spring in the bog but discover it is never too late.”
Cast your mind back to the fall. Pen in hand, describe an autumn morning — what you saw, what you noticed. Then: what were you fearful you might miss? About what does it feel a relief to be reminded “it is never too late”?
Want More?
—The entirety of “The Bog,” from Image issue 121.
If you’d like to subscribe to Image, here’s a discount link for $30 for a full year’s subscription.
—Another piece by Yudel Huberman, from Image issue 104
—Kitty Kielland’s 1900 painting “Peat Bog on Jæren”
Today’s Pause, Prompt, and Practice were provided by Lauren Winner. Lauren served as the chaplain for this year’s Glen Workshop During the month of July, Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment has featured Glen Workshop facilitators and other Glen-ish people, places, and things. I hope you’ve enjoyed it!
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The July Co-Writing Schedule is live The August Co-Writing Schedule is coming soon.
—Save the Date: Spiritual Direction for Writers® + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering will take place on Saturday, September 28th. Recordings will be available if you can’t join us live. Speakers will be announced soon!
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