"Tis hard for us to rouse our spirits up-
It is the human creative agony
Though but to hold the heart an empty cup
Or tighten on the team the rigid reign.
Many will rather lie among the slain
Than creep through narrow ways the light to gain-
Than wake the will, and be born bitterly."
~~~~George McDonald, "Diary of an Old Soul"
"Dancing on the thorns of
Indecision across the plains of hesitation where
Many stop and wait and in waiting die."
~~~~from a speech by John Denver
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"Many will rather lie among the slain than creep through narrow ways the light to gain..."
"Many stop and wait and in waiting die."
Sometimes it seems like all around are those who have stopped, who are content with....just......being.....stopped. All tangled up. Lying among the slain. Hesitating. Waiting. For what? Really, for what?
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"But we who would be born again indeed,
Must wake our souls unnumbered times a day
And urge ourselves to life with holy greed.
Now open our bosoms to the wind's free play,
And now, with patience forceful, hard, lie still
Submiss and ready to the making will,
Athirst and empty, for God's breath to fill."
~~~~George McDonald, "Diary of an Old Soul"
"Must wake our souls unnumbered times a day."
It really is up to us to get the most out of this life, isn't it.
It's knowing. It's understanding.
And we are so easily distracted.
And lazy.
We waste the precious gift of life on trivials. Anesthetized we go through the motions, we do whatever 'they' say we should, we follow the leader not looking close enough to recognize the Pied Piper, who is leading us over a cliff.
It's time to wake up. It's time to fight harder for what is good and noble and true within ourselves.
It's true that all that glitters is not gold. It looks like gold to us. But the gold has been stolen, replaced slyly with a gilded void.
"We look for rest and if we find it, it becomes intolerable. Incapable of the divine activity which alone can satisfy rest...fallen man flings himself upon exterior things, not so much for their own sake as for the sake of agitation which keeps his spirit pleasantly numb...The distraction diverts us aside from the one thing that can help us to begin our ascent to truth...the sense of our own emptiness." ~~~~~~~~ Thomas Merton
(Ah, nuts. I'm brooding again.)
4 comments:
There's treasure buried in a field, and to recognize its value is to sell everything I own and buy that field. Because it's worth everything. But it's difficult to let go of what seems to glitter in my hand, what I will lose anyway.
Your eloquence, Cherie, brings up these thoughts. Do they match yours?
~a fellow brooder
Sort of, Deanna. My thoughts are more that we just don't care, we are numb, in trances almost. We don't pay attention. We don't 'see'. We are content with crud because we are too lazy to find out that there is treasure to be had-more than we ever imagined. As C.S. Lewis says, we are content to play in the mud when offered a holiday at the seashore. We don't know what a holiday at sea is, so we don't care. We wait......but for what?
I think we don't let go of the glitter because we have let ourselves be convinced that it IS real gold. It IS the treasure.
Asleep in the light.
(I am speaking generally, of course. There are individuals who are quite awake, who creep through narrow ways to gain the light, who don't dilly dally in the plains of hesitation.)
Your thoughts are making me think from a different perspective. I LIKE that!
(Brooding on.)
Your thoughts seem to be dealing the ultimate challenge set before us. Namely, to actually live and keep stiving upwards, not to plateou like a skipping record.
Kierkegaard talks about getting caught up in parentheses rather than continuing down the hard path of becoming and of having faith which requires daily striving to stand transparently before God (much like Lewis's moral in 'Till We Have Faces).
Thanks for the reminder. It's little decisions not to keep creeping that "all of the sudden" amass to one losing the race to a tortise, and they are so tempting to choose.
Well said, Marianne. It is the ultimate challenge, you are so right. 'Till We Have Faces is a good example - thanks for reminding me. And 'caught up in parentheses' - perfect.
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