They tell it to the hills---
The hills just tell the orchards---
And they the daffodils!
A bird, by chance, that goes that way
Soft overheard the whole.
If I should bribe the little bird,
Who knows but she would tell?
I think I won't, however,
It's finer not to know;
If summer were an axiom*,
What sorcery had snow?**
So keep your secret, Father!
I would not, if I could,
Know what the sapphire fellows do,
In Your new-fashioned world!***
---Emily Dickinson
*Axiom--a generally accepted truth, a universal wisdom
**If summer seems like a spiritual teacher & I think I learn all from it, what power does winter have to show me anything?
***I'd rather be surprised by what purpose everything will have in heaven than to try and understand all that now in this life
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5 comments:
hi cmb,
thanks for checking out my blog!
one thing i'm not clear on...
you said you'd like to dialog with people who've wandered off into new age thinking... meaning? you're seriously interested in new age thinking? you're wanting to bring someone back who'se 'wandered'?
please clarify for me..
bing crosby...woohoo!
w* =D
Just to clarify---I'm totally in to being a follower of Christ. But I think we need to get His messge out in ways that really communicate to others. We Christians have a bad habit of marginalizing New Age people & not really talking to them. So, yes, I would like to see some of the New Age people come back to the fold. A lot of them were once exposed to some unhelpful and/or unkind expression of Christianity.
hi marie,
thanks for clarifying. another question for you - why just focus on people who have gone the new age route? why not anyone and everyone? jesus himself loved not only the tax collectors, but also the prostitutes, the heathen, and other confused people. or am i getting you wrong?
i do think it's sad how mainstream christianity just blends in with the world... we are to be "salt and light," as well as in the world but not of it.
may this be a reminder to the both of us to shed our light and not be afraid of what the world thinks of us.
this is a quote i found once... i think in WORLD magazine... i loved it so much, i memorized it...
"I have but one candle to burn, and would rather burn it out where people are dying in darkness than in a land which is flooded with lights." - anonymous missionary
thanks for the stimulating conversation!
w*
p.s. i copied this reply from my blog, so if you want to continue the conversation there without having to double the replies, it's probly easier. =)
Oh, it's not just the New Age people I want to talk to---I frequently have discussions with people of various backgrounds. But this particular venue is probably a good starting point for people into the New Age movement because the subject matter, the created world, often plays a large part in their thinking. (Not always so much in the way we Christians in the Western World present our beliefs.)
P.S. Liked your posting w/Jane Austen & etc. in it!!!
I too like (actually love) poetry and Emily Dickinson is one of my favorites. I also love Walt Whitman at the risk of losing my eternal soul (just kidding). Leaves of Grass is a complete work of self-revelation of a soul that was not afraid to be utterly transparent. I sometimes fault Walt (oops, unintentional rhyme!) for not telling the whole Truth, but in places he comes close. His relationship to God was just so close sometimes, that he didn't always understand what he was experiencing. But I like the way he equated the body and the soul, not that they are the same thing (that would be mere naturalism), but that they are equal partners. In the same way, Christ demonstrated that God didn't think Himself too rich to dwell in the poverty of our human nature (blood, guts and all), yet He didn't think human nature too foul and putrid to raise it up to His heavenly Throne. Maybe Walt was right, after all. "I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,
and you must not be abased to the other."
Glory to God, sister, and thanks again for visiting my humble blog!
Axia!
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