T.S. Tuesday: Bold Words for a Brave Life
I've been ruminating a lot on the words of T.S. Eliot that I posted last week.
"To do the useful thing,
to say the courageous thing,
to contemplate the beautiful thing,
that is enough for one man's life."
The words are beautiful. I'd say that'd be quite enough for one man or woman's life.
I find I often copy down beautiful words in hopes that they will materialize in my life, but more often than not, they don't.
I don't do the useful thing.
I don't say the courageous thing.
I don't contemplate the beautiful thing.
I lock myself in my comfort zone.
I seize up when given a chance to do or say something brave.
Or self-focus clouds my ability to even see an opportunity to serve or encourage someone else.
I reject beauty. I cling to the critical.
***
Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite for writing. For sharing prayers that haven't yet taken root. That I only hope will begin to bear fruit in my life.But it's a step. A first of step of bravery. To write it. To say it. To want it. To pray it.That's what affirmations are, right? The first step in transformation. In claiming our identity as children of God. In living a life that more closely matches our words.Although she's not T.S. Eliot, today I wanted to share the bold and beautiful--and hard to live up to--words of Sarah Bessey in her prayer/exhortation to Be Bold in an Ordinary Way for She Loves Magazine.I've followed Sarah's blog for awhile now and if anyone could use her words and her vulnerability and her raw and honest faith to inspire me to do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, and to contemplate the beautiful thing, it's her.Please check out her beautiful post, maybe even read it out loud when no one else is around, and take the first step toward ordinary boldness in our ordinary lives.Be Brave in an Ordinary Way
Let me be brave in an ordinary way first.Let me mother out of my best hopes instead of my worst fears. Let me love ferociously into the mundane corners of our life. Let me find God in my laundry pile.Let me take off my masks, admit my imperfections, tell my stories. Give me grace to be the one who jumps first.
Read the rest here.
T.S. Tuesday: Contemplate the Beauty
“To do the useful thing,to say the courageous thing,to contemplate the beautiful thing:that is enough for one man's life.”~T.S. Eliot
T.S. Tuesday: A New Verse
I recently searched for every T.S. Eliot quote or poem having to do with the New Year or new beginnings. My new search brought me to an old favorite: Ash Wednesday, and this stanza in particular:"The new years walk, restoringThrough a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoringWith a new verse the ancient rhyme. RedeemThe time. RedeemThe unread vision in the higher dream" T.S. Eliot, Ash WednesdayFor one, I like the idea of taking a new year's walk. Of meandering along a forest or a river or the ocean and allowing a bright cloud of tears wet with regrets and hopes and joys and sorrows to wash over you. This past weekend I hiked to the top of a hill that overlooks the town of Antigua in hopes of inducing my own bright and shiny new year's cloud of tears and restoration. Turns out I can't cry on demand and my sweat shone brighter than any tears. But this is beside the point.I wanted tears and emotion and a literal mountain top experience. But as I heaved and panted and stared out across the valley, the next line in Eliot's poem echoed in my head,"restoring with a new verse the ancient rhyme."A new year, a new verse. But what new verse? Of what ancient rhyme?The only ancient rhyme that matters; the call that echoes from deep to deep:
You are loved you are loved you are loved.
The new verse:You are loved in Guatemala. You are loved when your Spanish sucks. You are loved when you confuse verb tenses and gender agreement and take forever to spit out a sentence. You are loved when you mix up salsa steps. You are loved when don't Skype your mom as much as you should. You are loved when you don't have much work to do. You are loved when you procrastinate even the little amount of work you have. You are loved when you're sad. You are loved when you're lonely. You are loved when you don't understand how exactly you fit in here.You are loved.How could I forget that I need to hear it write it shout scream say it every day: