What can be named can be known, what can not be named must be lived, believed. I speak of the creator and the creation, the ordinary life lived extraordinarily. I work for the sake of working. The joy of creating is the joy of forgetting everything else. I lean into life. My tongue is fire; my breathe is wind. The spirit leaps from my mouth. I speak of a chain of events where making leads to making, action to action, love to love, where the beginning began so long ago we find ourselves always in the midst of it.

There is no rest. The act is now. In your lives you will make children, make peace, make errors, you will make trouble, you will dance under the sun and moon. As long as you live you will create life. You will rise and fall many times. It is like the making of a good loaf of bread. You will be nourished.

from "Becoming the Craftsman," by Normandi Ellis
in Awakening Osiris: The Egyptian Book of the Dead (1988). Used with permission.

clairelewisevans[at]gmail.com