I love these lyrics by Sally DeFord; today they speak to me...
Hear Thou the song of my heart
When as a burden there lies in my breast
An anthem of praise no words can express
Hear Thou the song of my heart
Hear Thou the song of my heart
When tears hush my voice as I ferverntly seek
To offer Thee praise my soul cannot speak
Hear Thou the song of my heart
Hear Thou my joy unspoken
Hear Thou my psalm unsung
Accept Thou my quiet devotion
Professed in no earthly tongue
Hear 'neath my stillness unbroken
A carol to my King
And when my heart can find no voice
Hear Thou the songs I cannot sing
Hear Thou the song of my heart
Though voiceless the anthem must often remain
Hear Thou my love in the silent refrain
Hear Thou the song of my heart
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
New Beginnings or New Endings?
Today I found a new blog, "At His Feet" which I have added to my links. The latest post on this blog began with a quote which gave me pause for reflection. Let me share it with you...
"Nobody can go back and start a new bdginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." -M. Robinson
In my journal of thoughts I found this by George Elliot: "It is never too late to be what you might have been."
Yesterday I was quite discouraged about my life, feeling very much like I have let my "spiritual self" down. These two thoughts should carry me through another day; If I could just remember the tune I might sing this hymn today: "Lean on my ample arm, O thou depressed!
And I will bid the storm cease in thy breast.
What e'er thy lot may be
On life's complaining sea,
If thou wilt come to me,
Thou shalt have rest."
Hymn #120 written by Theodore E. Curtis
"Nobody can go back and start a new bdginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." -M. Robinson
In my journal of thoughts I found this by George Elliot: "It is never too late to be what you might have been."
Yesterday I was quite discouraged about my life, feeling very much like I have let my "spiritual self" down. These two thoughts should carry me through another day; If I could just remember the tune I might sing this hymn today: "Lean on my ample arm, O thou depressed!
And I will bid the storm cease in thy breast.
What e'er thy lot may be
On life's complaining sea,
If thou wilt come to me,
Thou shalt have rest."
Hymn #120 written by Theodore E. Curtis
Back-to-Basics.....Faith and Simplicity
For our Spiritual Night (FHE) this year, I will be using the topics from the chapters in the "Gospel Principles" manual...they are really "back-to-basics" topics and the material in the manual is not more than can be covered nicely by the Relief Society/Priesthood teachers on Sunday. That leaves me with the challenge of finding enrichment material on the topic of the week for our Monday night hour. As I was gathering thoughts for an introductory "lesson", I opened my old journal of thoughts and found the following quotes on "Simplicity" and "Faith"...I think I shall be able to develope these thoughts quite nicely for those who have complained that "We've heard all of this [the basics] before!"
from Albert Einstein: "When the solution is simple, God is answering."
from Neal A. Maxwell: "The wold wants the gospel to be complex, and then not understanding it, have an excuse for not living it."
from Rainer Maria Rilke: "Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart, and learn to love the questions themselves."
and...George Santayana:
"O world, thou choosest not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world but had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul's invinsible surmise
Was all hiis science and his only art.
Our knowledge is a torch of smokey pine
That lights the pathway but one step ahead
Across a void of mystery and dread.
Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine
By which alone the mortal heart is led
Unto the thinking of the thought devine."
and finally, from some source unknown to me: "Faith allows us to benefit without complete understanding."
and especially for me..."I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."
1 Nephi 4:6
from Albert Einstein: "When the solution is simple, God is answering."
from Neal A. Maxwell: "The wold wants the gospel to be complex, and then not understanding it, have an excuse for not living it."
from Rainer Maria Rilke: "Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart, and learn to love the questions themselves."
and...George Santayana:
"O world, thou choosest not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world but had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul's invinsible surmise
Was all hiis science and his only art.
Our knowledge is a torch of smokey pine
That lights the pathway but one step ahead
Across a void of mystery and dread.
Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine
By which alone the mortal heart is led
Unto the thinking of the thought devine."
and finally, from some source unknown to me: "Faith allows us to benefit without complete understanding."
and especially for me..."I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."
1 Nephi 4:6
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Transformation...the tree of THIS life
I feel my own strength and fragility tonight as I reflect on my days at my husband's bedside, watching his slow-paced recovery from the massive heart attack that nearly took his life...somehow this poem by Anne Morrow Lindbergh seems to espress my thoughts and feelings, and reflect my experiences much more accurately now than on the day I wrote these words in my journal:
"Already I have shed the leaves of youth,
Stripped by the wind of time down to the truth
Of winter branches. Linear and alone
I stand, a lens for lives beyond my own,
A frame through which another's fire may glow,
A harp on which another's passions, blow.
The pattern of my boughs, an open chart
Spread on the sky, to others my impart
Its leafless mysteries that once I prized,
Before bare roots and branches equalized;
Tendrils that tap the rain or twigs the sun
Are all the same, shadow and substance one.
Now that my vulnerable leaves are cast aside,
There's nothing left to shield, no thing to hide.
Blow through me, Life, pared down at last to bone,
So fragile and so fearless have I grown!"
A thought: (someone's comment upon the dedication of the Vernal Utah Temple)..."The Vernal, Utah temple was a tabernacle for 90 years before it was ready to be transformed into a temple...how like us!"
"Already I have shed the leaves of youth,
Stripped by the wind of time down to the truth
Of winter branches. Linear and alone
I stand, a lens for lives beyond my own,
A frame through which another's fire may glow,
A harp on which another's passions, blow.
The pattern of my boughs, an open chart
Spread on the sky, to others my impart
Its leafless mysteries that once I prized,
Before bare roots and branches equalized;
Tendrils that tap the rain or twigs the sun
Are all the same, shadow and substance one.
Now that my vulnerable leaves are cast aside,
There's nothing left to shield, no thing to hide.
Blow through me, Life, pared down at last to bone,
So fragile and so fearless have I grown!"
A thought: (someone's comment upon the dedication of the Vernal Utah Temple)..."The Vernal, Utah temple was a tabernacle for 90 years before it was ready to be transformed into a temple...how like us!"
Mothering My Flock
This poem by Anne Bradstreet is one of my favorites ; so fitting of my own life of Motherhood:
"I had eight birds hatchet in one nest,
Four cocks there were, and hens the rest,
I nurst them up with pain and care,
Nor cost, nor labour did I spare,
Til at the last they felt their wing,
Mounted the trees, and learned to sing.
Or here or there, they'll take their flight,
As is ordain'd, so shall they light...
Mean while my days in tunes I'le spend,
Till my weak layes with me shall end,
In shady woods I'le sit and sing,
And things that past, to mind I'le bring."
While all my "birds" have taken their flight, it is my observation that birds in treetops and those perched precariously on telephone wires may have found a place to light, but they soon take flight once again. Even as I sit singing in shady woods reflecting on the things that are past...I, nor they have taken our final flight... may our destination be the same, though our flight patterns may have been different.
"I had eight birds hatchet in one nest,
Four cocks there were, and hens the rest,
I nurst them up with pain and care,
Nor cost, nor labour did I spare,
Til at the last they felt their wing,
Mounted the trees, and learned to sing.
Or here or there, they'll take their flight,
As is ordain'd, so shall they light...
Mean while my days in tunes I'le spend,
Till my weak layes with me shall end,
In shady woods I'le sit and sing,
And things that past, to mind I'le bring."
While all my "birds" have taken their flight, it is my observation that birds in treetops and those perched precariously on telephone wires may have found a place to light, but they soon take flight once again. Even as I sit singing in shady woods reflecting on the things that are past...I, nor they have taken our final flight... may our destination be the same, though our flight patterns may have been different.
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