*enter furry little Benji trotting along* "I -- feel -- love, all around...
-- I can feel it, shining down.... It lights -- up my day -- like the morning su-un, reaching out -- and touching everyone..."
Just an old song in my head. I'm sorry if you haven't heard it.
Hmmm, my news is boring. Quotes are more fun. I went to Peoria this week and had a grand old time at my last quarterly AmeriCorps training, and enjoyed the drive there and back, with all the trees budding out. However, I am also a fart and missed Meredith's birthday because of poor record-keeping and preoccupation with said Peoria trip. So, er, um, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEREDITH!!!
Happy Birthday also to Mansoor. Enjoyed our phone conversation last night!
Some of you have had aches and pains and car accidents since we last spoke, and I'll keep you in my prayers. Hope things are looking up for you.
For those who don't know, I was recently granted the honor to form a children's Christian drama group at Living Passion Studio (with the Narnia and Born to Die people.) We'll meet on Monday nights starting May 15, and focus on a dual purpose of internal benefits (e.g. spiritual growth of the individual child and the group through dramatic activities) and ministry outreach (e.g. performing skits at nursing homes, Christian daycares, etc.) More info forthcoming after my scrabbling planning stage (a much shorter period than I had anticipated.) I am SO EXCITED to have this opportunity, and would be grateful if you will pray for the success of this new mission -- that the Spirit will use this new group to touch the lives of everyone involved -- planners, children, their families, and the community we'll serve.
I know this is a long entry -- just skip the rest if you're running short on time. But I wanted to share with you another great poem by C.S. Lewis, and then an excerpt from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
***
"The Prudent Jailer"
Always the old nostalgia? Yes.
We still remember times before
We had learned to wear the prison dress
Or steel rings rubbed our ankles sore.
Escapists? Yes. Looking at bars
And chains, we think of files; and then
Of black nights without moon or stars
And luck befriending hunted men.
Still when we hear the trains at night
We envy the free travellers, whirled
In how few moments past the sight
Of the blind wall that bounds our world.
Our Jailer (well he may) prefers
Our thoughts should keep a narrower range.
"The proper study of prisoners
Is prison," he tells us. Is it strange?
And if old freedom in our glance
Betrays itself, he calls it names
"Dope" -- "Wishful thinking" -- or "Romance,"
Till tireless propaganda tames.
All but the strong whose hearts they break,
All but the few whose faith is whole.
Stone walls cannot a prison make
Half so secure as rigmarole.
**********
And, because it seems to relate a bit (or a lot) to that poem, the following excerpt from the chapter called "What Happened About the Statues":
... For a second after Aslan had breathed upon him the stone lion looked just the same. Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along his white marble back -- then it spread -- then the colour seemed to lick all over him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper -- then, while his hind-quarters were obviously stone the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stony folds rippled into living hair. Then he opened his great red mouth, warm and living, and gave a prodigious yawn. And now his hind legs had come to life. He lifted one of them and scratched himself. Then, having caught sight of Aslan, he went bounding after him and frisking round him whimpering with delight and jumping to lick his face... everywhere the statues were coming to life. The courtyard looked no longer like a museum, it looked more like a zoo. Creatures were running after Aslan and dancing round him till he was almost hidden in the crowd...
... And into the interior they rushed and for several minutes the whole of that dark, horrible, fusty old castle echoed with the opening of windows and with everyone's voices crying out at once "Don't forget the dungeons -- Give us a hand with this door! -- Here's another little winding stair -- Oh! I say. Here's a poor little kangaroo. Call Aslan -- Phew! How it smells in here -- Look out for trap-doors -- Up here! There are a whole lot more on the landing!"...
... But at last the ransacking of the Witch's fortress was ended. The whole castle stood empty with every door and window open and the light and sweet spring air flooding in to all the dark and evil places which needed them so badly. The whole crowd of liberated statues surged back into the courtyard...
... When the dust cleared it was odd, standing in that dry, grim, stony yard, to see through the gap all the grass and waving trees and sparkling streams of the forest, and the blue hills beyond that and beyond them the sky.
****
Happy Spring and Happy Easter to you all. HALLELUJAH, HE IS RISEN!!
And we need be prisoners no more.
Just an old song in my head. I'm sorry if you haven't heard it.
Hmmm, my news is boring. Quotes are more fun. I went to Peoria this week and had a grand old time at my last quarterly AmeriCorps training, and enjoyed the drive there and back, with all the trees budding out. However, I am also a fart and missed Meredith's birthday because of poor record-keeping and preoccupation with said Peoria trip. So, er, um, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEREDITH!!!
Happy Birthday also to Mansoor. Enjoyed our phone conversation last night!
Some of you have had aches and pains and car accidents since we last spoke, and I'll keep you in my prayers. Hope things are looking up for you.
For those who don't know, I was recently granted the honor to form a children's Christian drama group at Living Passion Studio (with the Narnia and Born to Die people.) We'll meet on Monday nights starting May 15, and focus on a dual purpose of internal benefits (e.g. spiritual growth of the individual child and the group through dramatic activities) and ministry outreach (e.g. performing skits at nursing homes, Christian daycares, etc.) More info forthcoming after my scrabbling planning stage (a much shorter period than I had anticipated.) I am SO EXCITED to have this opportunity, and would be grateful if you will pray for the success of this new mission -- that the Spirit will use this new group to touch the lives of everyone involved -- planners, children, their families, and the community we'll serve.
I know this is a long entry -- just skip the rest if you're running short on time. But I wanted to share with you another great poem by C.S. Lewis, and then an excerpt from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
***
"The Prudent Jailer"
Always the old nostalgia? Yes.
We still remember times before
We had learned to wear the prison dress
Or steel rings rubbed our ankles sore.
Escapists? Yes. Looking at bars
And chains, we think of files; and then
Of black nights without moon or stars
And luck befriending hunted men.
Still when we hear the trains at night
We envy the free travellers, whirled
In how few moments past the sight
Of the blind wall that bounds our world.
Our Jailer (well he may) prefers
Our thoughts should keep a narrower range.
"The proper study of prisoners
Is prison," he tells us. Is it strange?
And if old freedom in our glance
Betrays itself, he calls it names
"Dope" -- "Wishful thinking" -- or "Romance,"
Till tireless propaganda tames.
All but the strong whose hearts they break,
All but the few whose faith is whole.
Stone walls cannot a prison make
Half so secure as rigmarole.
**********
And, because it seems to relate a bit (or a lot) to that poem, the following excerpt from the chapter called "What Happened About the Statues":
... For a second after Aslan had breathed upon him the stone lion looked just the same. Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along his white marble back -- then it spread -- then the colour seemed to lick all over him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper -- then, while his hind-quarters were obviously stone the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stony folds rippled into living hair. Then he opened his great red mouth, warm and living, and gave a prodigious yawn. And now his hind legs had come to life. He lifted one of them and scratched himself. Then, having caught sight of Aslan, he went bounding after him and frisking round him whimpering with delight and jumping to lick his face... everywhere the statues were coming to life. The courtyard looked no longer like a museum, it looked more like a zoo. Creatures were running after Aslan and dancing round him till he was almost hidden in the crowd...
... And into the interior they rushed and for several minutes the whole of that dark, horrible, fusty old castle echoed with the opening of windows and with everyone's voices crying out at once "Don't forget the dungeons -- Give us a hand with this door! -- Here's another little winding stair -- Oh! I say. Here's a poor little kangaroo. Call Aslan -- Phew! How it smells in here -- Look out for trap-doors -- Up here! There are a whole lot more on the landing!"...
... But at last the ransacking of the Witch's fortress was ended. The whole castle stood empty with every door and window open and the light and sweet spring air flooding in to all the dark and evil places which needed them so badly. The whole crowd of liberated statues surged back into the courtyard...
... When the dust cleared it was odd, standing in that dry, grim, stony yard, to see through the gap all the grass and waving trees and sparkling streams of the forest, and the blue hills beyond that and beyond them the sky.
****
Happy Spring and Happy Easter to you all. HALLELUJAH, HE IS RISEN!!
And we need be prisoners no more.