Friday, August 11, 2017

Zora Neale Hurston

balloon flower in purple

The springing of the yellow line of morning out of the misty deep of dawn, is glory enough for me. I know that nothing is destructible; things merely change forms. When the consciousness we know as life ceases, I know that I shall still be part and parcel of the world. I was a part before the sun rolled into shape and burst forth in the glory of change. I was, when the earth was hurled out from its fiery rim. I shall return with the earth to Father Sun, and still exist in substance when the sun has lost its fire, and disintegrated into infinity to perhaps become a part of the whirling rubble of space. Why fear? The stuff of my being is matter, ever changing, ever moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men? The wide belt of the universe has no need for finger-rings. I am one with the infinite and need no other assurance.”
—Zora Neale Hurston, "Religion," from Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston (1942), anthologized in African-American Humanism: An Anthology edited by Norm R. Allen Jr. (1991)

I keep this quote where I can see it often
I find comfort in it, because as much as we destroy this earth, we can never take it all apart can we?
we are connected to the world, the cosmos and each other in ways that are indestructible 
ways that defy our own perception and our own egos. 
I will still fight for and mourn for this world yet the cosmos is beyond our comprehension and it will go on no matter what and in one form or another I will be a part of it and so will everything else.

3 comments:

Ms. said...

Zora Neale was a genius with words. This is gorgeous.

alsokaizen said...

I agree!

Saskia said...

amen