Poem of the Week XII

This week's poem is actually the lyrics to one of my favorite hymns, adapted from Habakkuk 2:20. You can listen to a couple versions of this song (1)here, (2)here, (3)here, and (4)from here. Which recording (1-4) do you like best?

Meditate a while on the awesomeness of the lyrics, especially the second verse!

"Poem" of the Week XII:

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly minded,
for with blessing in his hand
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords in human vesture,
in the Body and the Blood
he will give to all the faithful
his own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
as the Light of Light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
that the powers of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.

At his feet the six-winged seraph;
cherubim with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the Presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry,
"Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, Lord Most High!"

One-sided

I once had a friend criticize me for sustaining a friendship that was pretty one-sided. In fact, many friends have criticized this in me. I was thinking today about that criticism and whether or not I thought it was true. In particular I thought about the way it works in my female friendships.

This is what usually happens:

After much work, I end up getting together with a girl friend I haven't talked to in a while. We chat about her relationship with whatever boy, how it's developing, how it's not developing, how excited she is about it, how awesome it is that things are going so well, etc. Occasionally she expresses doubts about the current situation, and I offer advice.

I guess the conversation doesn't feel one-sided because I am doing a lot of talking. Granted, this talking is usually in abstractions or talking about her and her relationship/male interest, etc. I prefer to keep the conversation away from myself for as long as possible. I ask for it.

Eventually she, like most people who talk to me for any length of time, feels guilty for talking about herself for 90% of the time and decides to offer the last 5 minutes of our time before she is scheduled to be somewhere, meet someone, etc. as a question to me, "How are you?" I say, "Fine. I'm doing well." Acceptable answer. Crisis averted, and then there is the inevitable, "How's nursing school?"

I've found that I have been easily reduced to my identity as a nursing student. Granted, I enjoy helping people but sometimes I feel the only way people know to communicate with me now is to ask some medical question so I may indulge them in an answer. It goes a little something like this, "I have this rash; what do you think is going on?" (and I was wrong) or "I have this mass in my neck; it's really hard, and it hurts. What is it?" I do enjoy a little medical mystery every now and then, and I am flattered that my friends trust me so much to inquire about their medical woes, but I also feel overwhelmingly that I have lost a lot of my personhood by going to a professional school. "How are you?" has been replaced with, "How is nursing school?"

I am not sure that I feel altogether prepared to answer the former. I mean, I'm fine.

Be Satisfied

This is an awesome meditation one of my friends showed me. I've been working on making it a part of my life every day. I hope it can be helpful in your lives too:

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone,
To have a deep soul relationship with another,
To be loved thoroughly and exclusively.
But God, to a Christian, says,

"No, not until you are satisfied, fulfilled and content
With being loved by Me alone,
With giving yourself totally and reservedly to Me,
With having an intensely personal and unique relationship
With Me alone.
Discovering that only in Me is your satisfaction to be found,
Will you be capable of the perfect human relationship
That I have planned for you.
You will never be united with another until you are united
With Me alone,
Exclusive of anyone or anything else,
Exclusive of any other desires or longings.

I want you to stop planning,
Stop wishing,
And allow Me to give you the most thrilling plan existing,
One that you cannot imagine.
Please allow Me to bring it to you.
You just keep watching Me, expecting the greatest things.
Keep experiencing the satisfaction that I Am.
Keep listening and learning the things I tell you.
You just wait.
That's all.
Don't be anxious.
Don't worry.
Don't look at the things you think you want;
You just keep looking off and away up to Me,
Or you'll miss what I want to show you.
And then when you are ready,
I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than any
You could dream of.
You see, until you are ready and until
The one I have for you is ready
(I am working even at this moment to have you both ready at the same time),
Until you are both satisfied exclusively with Me
And the life I prepared for you,
You won't be able to experience the love that
Exemplified your relationship with Me.
And this is the perfect love.

And dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love,
I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your
Relationship with Me,
And to enjoy materially and concretely
The everlasting union of beauty, perfection and love
That I offer you with Myself.
Know that I love utterly.
I Am God.
Believe it and be satisfied.

~ St. Anthony of Padua

Poem of the Week XI

Because every once in a while you deserve something a little silly:

The Late Passenger

C.S. Lewis

The sky was low, the sounding rain was falling dense and dark,
And Noah's sons were standing at the window of the Ark.

The beasts were in, but Japhet said, 'I see one creature more
Belated and unmated there come knocking at the door.'

'Well let him knock,' said Ham, 'Or let him drown or learn to swim.
We're overcrowded as it is; we've got no room for him.'

'And yet it knocks, how terribly it knocks,' said Shem, 'Its feet
Are hard as horn--but oh the air that comes from it is sweet.'

'Now hush,' said Ham, 'You'll waken Dad, and once he comes to see
What's at the door, it's sure to mean more work for you and me.'

Noah's voice came roaring from the darkness down below,
'Some animal is knocking. Take it in before we go.'

Ham shouted back, and savagely he nudged the other two,
'That's only Japhet knocking down a brad-nail in his shoe.'

Said Noah, 'Boys, I hear a noise that's like a horse's hoof.'
Said Ham, 'Why, that's the dreadful rain that drums upon the roof.'

Noah tumbled up on deck and out he put his head;
His face went grey, his knees were loosed, he tore his beard and said,

'Look, look! It would not wait. It turns away. It takes its flight.
Fine work you've made of it, my sons, between you all to-night!

'Even if I could outrun it now, it would not turn again
--Not now. Our great discourtesy has earned its high disdain.

'Oh noble and unmated beast, my sons were all unkind;
In such a night what stable and what manger will you find?

'Oh golden hoofs, oh cataracts of mane, oh nostrils wide
With indignation! Oh the neck wave-arched, the lovely pride!

'Oh long shall be the furrows ploughed across the hearts of men
Before it comes to stable and to manger once again,

'And dark and crooked all the ways in which our race shall walk,
And shrivelled all their manhood like a flower with broken stalk,

'And all the world, oh Ham, may curse the hour when you were born;
Because of you the Ark must sail without the Unicorn.'

Triumph with Technology

I installed new RAM on my computer today.

That is, I took my battery out of my computer, screwed off the metal L-bracket, and replaced my current 667 MB with two gigs of memory ON MY OWN!! I'm pretty proud.

There is something about mastering a new skill with technology that really thrills me, and I just wanted to share it with you.

As always, thanks for reading.

Poem of the Week X

Those Who Love

Sara Teasdale

Those who love the most,
Do not talk of their love,
Francesca, Guinevere,
Deirdre, Iseult, Heloise,
In the fragrant gardens of heaven
Are silent, or speak if at all
Of fragile inconsequent things.

And a woman I used to know
Who loved one man from her youth,
Against the strength of the fates
Fighting in somber pride
Never spoke of this thing,
But hearing his name by chance,
A light would pass over her face.

Lifelong Learning

I am a huge proponent of lifelong learning. I think that each day, and its new experiences, provides an opportunity to learn more. 

I just read the most fascinating news about the ability to learn throughout one's lifetime despite factors that might suggest learning is no longer possible. 

If this interests you, please read this article. 

I am interested about what sort of "profound implications," as Dr. Berkinschetein says, there will be for neuroscience, medical care, and all those who are involved in making end-of-life decisions. Could these implications force us to better define life, and what it means to be "conscious," or will they drag us deeper down into our god-complexes, and further our illusions that being able to predict a patient's recovery or death equals actually having the power to grant life or death? 

I'm not sure how much press this small study will get, or how profound its implications will turn out to be, but I do know that it makes me feel foolish for grumbling about my exams and having to show what I have learned while patients in a vegetative state are fighting, in the only way they know how, to prove that they can learn, and are, indeed, not so vegetative after all.