I recently gave an oil painting to Formation House as a kind of housewarming gift. It is a painting of my favorite stanza from a poem by Sam Walter Foss, The House by the Side of the Road.
The stanza goes like this:
I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead,
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night.
And still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.
The poem is meaningful to me because it reflects my own resolution to seek out community. For me, the first line talks about the good things that await in the future. The second line talks about the hard things. I am a future-oriented person, so I am always looking toward what is next. But the end of the stanza is about deciding to be in the present moment. It is also about deciding to live a life open to others rather than closed off.
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