We returned to Durham this week, after a week-long trip to visit with loved ones out of state. And this morning, while trying to be open to what might become the image for today, I took a composed photograph of a piece of pottery I just got back from glaze firing.
The plate sits atop a rock near the sidewalk in front of our house. I’ve been seeing if I could craft a platter worthy of commemorating the wedding of a very dear couple, married in Lyon, France back in June 2019.
In 2021, after the pandemic ebbed, the couple hosted a state-side celebration weekend of their marriage in the North Country — north of the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. The celebration was grand, with many occasions to rekindle ties with friends and family, honor ancestors and family trees, and connect with the many relatives and dear friends that brought the two into being. The mountain air, times for hiking, and the numerous feasts are now rich and precious memories. The flower bouquets in this North Country marriage bore a common theme of the purple thistle. So the the intertwining thistle stems etched in the stoneware platter seemed appropriate. And what would an act of intertwining thistles be without a visit from Cupid, the Roman god of Passion and Love, masquerading as a pollinator butterfly?
I’ve been pondering the following phrase over the past several days, and the more I let the phrase percolate, the more depth and color it seems to reveal. (…And the less I seem to be able understand!) Here’s the phrase:
“dynamis en astheneia teleitai — Power in frailty reaches completion.”
St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians
Does power somehow need frailty in order to complete its mighty work?
I seem to need more time to ponder. For now, I’ll rest in the happy image of the lovely thistle, shielded by thorny armor. Protected, but still frail; for its sweet nectar, residing in the most vulnerable, hidden depths, remains exposed to the penetration of Life Force, in the form of a pollinator. The mighty work? For one, the miracle of new seed that will preserve the species through the long North Country winter and bring forth new life come the springtime thaw.
tgholt.net 