As I am leaving in just 41 days, 21 hours and 52 minutes for Franciscan, life feels rather restless now. All upcoming freshman who are embarking on such a new "chapter" in their lives feel to some degree the peculiarity of staring at blank pages. What will the story be ahead? We all have in our minds a thousand different story plots, twists and turns our character will take, adventures, dangers, excitement and a mission to accept. Will we step forward bravely amidst the loud opinions of others in the circle of Elrond? Even though we do not know the way?
“There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid
Exactly. But what about when you've saddled the horse, packed your bags, and realize you are frozen in an iceberg? You still have to wait 41 days, 21 hours, and 39 minutes before the iceberg melts and you're free to run.
However, it's good to know that “Even a snail will eventually reach its destination.”
― Gail Tsukiyama, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
Isabel
41 days, 21 hours, 29 minutes and 5 seconds
Leaving home is always very big. Grandmother Judith and I read often in the daily office, "as an eagle incites its nestlings forth, by hovering over its brood," from Deuteronomy 32. The story behind that image is that mama or papa eagle will coax the little birds to get out of the nest. They fall, but the parent flies under them and catches them.
ReplyDeleteI went away to college, to a prestigious little school that a recent Newsweek report listed in "the top ten colleges that have nothing but their reputations." That was Reed College in Oregon. I fell in love with a Jewish girl from Brooklyn, and she with me. It was serious enough that after I dropped out of college (only one quarter of the entering students graduate from Reed), she came with her father on a business trip to San Francisco. But luckily for your mother and you and your brothers and sisters, her father said, "no." I was looking for the meaning of life and didn't have any career prospects.
One of the most comforting passages of scripture for me is Isaiah 30:21, "And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left." I have about forty years of experience now, trusting God to guide me.
Well GJ is back from her walk-in-the-dusk, and we should read evening prayer.
love
Grandfather Brown