Posts tagged fear

What do I have a GIVENNESS NOW to?

Brave the creature fear.

I was full by your count
I was lost but your fool
was a long visit wrong?
say you are the only

so many foreign worlds
so ready for us
so ready for us, 
the creature fear

teased by your blouse 
spit out by your mouth
I was loud by your lowered
seminary sold

tear on
tail on 
take all on the wind on
soft bloody nose
sign another floor

the so many territories
ready to reform
don’t let it form us
don’t let it form us
the creature fear
so did he foil ‘is own?
is he ready to reform?

so many torahs
so many for us
the creature fear  

Bon Iver, Creature Fear

…so many torahs.

I have a GIVENNESS NOW to brave the creature fear.

What do I have a GIVENNESS NOW to?

Not to fear beauty.

“A woodpecker with a cry as sharp as a dagger terrifies the lesser birds, while he is himself benevolent and harmless. 

The beautiful kingfisher in dazzling flight rattles like a bird of ill omen. 

So we fear beauty.”  Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

…will I behold what I cannot hold?

I have a GIVENNESS NOW not to fear beauty.

What do I have a GIVENNESS NOW to?

Not to fear the second question.


“The important religious question is not that of the rich and young man, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The essential religious question is the one that God, in effect, asks Adam, “Who and whose are you?”


We like the first question because we think there is something we can do about it, and it gives us control.  

We fear the second question because only God can answer it, and his answer seems too good to be true.”  Richard Rohr, Adam’s Return

…seems too good to be true.

I have a GIVENNESS NOW to not fear the second question.