This Is the Time to Be Slow

 

The Smart Witch

by John O’Donohue

“This is the time to be slow,

Lie low to the wall

Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let

The wire brush of doubt

Scrape from your heart

All sense of yourself

And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,

Time will come good;

And you will find your feet

Again on fresh pastures of promise,

Where the air will be kind

And blushed with beginning.”

Notes:

John O’Donohue (1956-2008) was an Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher. He was a native Irish speaker, and as an author is best known for popularizing Celtic spirituality.

The Smart Witch by Elizabeth

[Image: Girl Playing Music by Marie Spartali Stillman (1844-1927). Marie Euphrosyne Spartali was a British member of the second generation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Of the Pre-Raphaelites, she had one of the longest-running careers, spanning sixty years and producing over one hundred and fifty works. Though her work with the Brotherhood began as a favorite model, she soon trained and became a respected painter, earning praise from Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others.]

The Smart Witch by Elizabeth