Wendell Berry Archives - Keith Shields

Fork in the Road

“Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.” Deuteronomy 5:33 (NLT) “There’s a fork in the road but you never take it.”[1] It may depend upon our perspective or it may depend upon our character,…

Stages of Life

“I know better by now than to try to predict what is to come. But of all of the stages of my life – Goforth, Squires Landing, The Good Shepherd; Pigeonville, Lexington, Port William – this one here on the riverbank bids fair to be the last. Unless of course I fall and break something…

Poor Sermon on a Pretty Day

“In general, I weathered even the worst sermons pretty well. They had the great virtue of causing my mind to wander. Some of the best things I have ever thought of I have thought of during bad sermons. Or I would look out the windows. In winter, when the windows were closed, the church seemed…

Loving Our Enemies

In his brilliant novel, Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry creates a particular scene to illustrate a point. Jayber Crow, who is narrating his own story, is the town barber and, as is the lot of a small-town barber, hears many conversations in his barber shop. Some of these conversations are entertaining, amusing, and educational. Others are…

The Problem With Quotes

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time will know that I rely heavily upon the writings and sayings of others. I frequently use the words that another has said or written as a jumping off point for exploring my own thoughts. Most of the time, I am confident that this is…

The Mercy of the World

“The mercy of the world is you don’t know what’s going to happen.” ― Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow As children, and then young adults, we start out into this world without a very good sense of who we are. The older we get, the more we realize our capacities, our strengths, our weaknesses, our gifts from God, and…