.
He was not lonely because he had no desire to return to the past:
"I am not one of those who enjoy thinking of their past life.
For me, it is gone, and I have no desire to resurrect it even in thought."
He saw the pain and imperfection of the past, and he did not want it back.
The present was enough; it was all he asked.
And the present provided him sufficient company.
He was newly and generously mindful of the creatures who lived with him in Payne Hollow:
"This hillside is common ground for me and the little wild animals who live here."
He was attentive as perhaps never before to the presence of possum and chipmunk,
cricket and katydid, bullfrog and dove.
When he woke long before dawn, the night song of the katydids
would be dwindling toward silence:
"Each squawk you think is the last; but no, some diehard starts afresh.
Sometimes I lie awake listening.
Surely now the night is over, but no, not yet.
.
~ Wendell Berry
quoting Harlan Hubbard in
Harlan Hubbard - Life and Work
art by Harlan Hubbard
.
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