{"id":25265,"date":"2025-05-23T10:46:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T14:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25265"},"modified":"2025-05-23T10:46:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T14:46:50","slug":"25265","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25265","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Married to the Land<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

No other place I know speaks simultaneously of meadows and desert<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
DAVID WHYTE<\/a>MAY 23<\/td><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>READ IN APP<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
 <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Married to the Land<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s as if the solid green\nof the valley\nwere an island\nheld and bound\nby the river flow\nof stone\nand when\nin summer rain\nwhite limestone\nturns black\nand the central green\nis light-wracked\nround the edges,\nthat dark\nreflective gleam\nof rock\nbecomes\nan edging brilliance\nthat centers\neach field\nto deep emerald.\n\nNo other place\nI know\nspeaks\nsimultaneously\nof meadows\nand desert,\nabsorbing dryness\nand winter wet,\nthe ground\nporous and forgiving\nof all elements,\nwhite and black,\nwet and dry,\nrich and barren,\nlike a human marriage,\none hand\nof welcome\nraised,\nthe other\ntightened\ninvoluntary\non a concealed\nknife in the\nnecessary\nprotections\nof otherness.\n\nAs if someone\nhad said, you will\nlearn\nin this land\nthe same welcome\nand the same exile\nas you do in your\nmortal vows\nto another,\nyou will promise\nyourself\nand abase yourself and find yourself\nagain\nin the intimacy\nof opposites,\nyou will pasture yourself\nin the living green\nand the bare rock,\nyou will find\ncomfort in strangeness\nand prayer\nin aloneness,\nyou will be proud\nand fierce\nand single minded\neven\nin your unknowing\nand you will\ncarry on\nthrough all the seasons\nof your living and dying\nuntil\nyour aloneness\nbecomes equal\nto the trials\nyou have set yourself.\n\nThen this land\nwill become again\nthe land\nyou imagined\nwhen you saw it\nfor the first time\nand these vows\nof marriage\ncan become\nagain and again\nthe place you\nmake your\nresidence\nlike\nthis same\nrough\nintimate\nand cradled\nground\nbetween\nstone horizons,\nembracing\nand also,\nlike the one\nto whom\nyou made the vows,\nalways beyond you,\nboth utterly\nwith you\nand both\nstrangely beautiful\nto know\nby their distance.\n\n\n-from The Seven Streams: An Irish Cycle<\/a><\/em>, originally published as The Vows at Glencolmcille<\/strong> in Everything is Waiting for You<\/em><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Married to the Land No other place I know speaks simultaneously of meadows and desert DAVID WHYTEMAY 23   READ IN APP   Married to the Land It\u2019s as if the solid green of the valley were an island held and bound by the river flow of stone and when in summer rain white limestone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25266,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25265\/revisions\/25266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}