The Room of Love

To switch from Kreeft for a moment - that last post I find totally uninspiring in retrospect. I'm finishing up Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. This is a novel that's written as a memoir of an old, twice-widowed, Kentucky farm wife. This is what she has to say about the mature love of marriage...

"The room of love is another world. You go there wearing no watch, watching no clock. It is the world without end, so small that two people can hold it in their arms, and yet it is bigger than worlds on worlds, for it contains the longing of all things to be together, and to be at rest together. You come together to the day's end, weary and sore, troubled and afraid. You take it all into your arms, it goes away, and there you are in a gift. The words have all been said, all permissions given, and you are free in the place that is the two of you together. What could be more heavenly than to have desire and satisfaction in the same room?

If you want to know why even in telling of trouble and sorrow I am giving thanks, this is why."

I love the way Berry writes. I have read several of his novels and am always deeply moved by his understated wisdom. It's all about love, community, and working with God's creation in contentment.