Being surrounded by the green of countryside does something good to us. I grew up in south London, where the predominant colour was grey! But green is the colour of Shropshire, especially now in midsummer.
When we are young we have to learn to consent to the goodness of life, and the greenness that surrounds me now represents that – goodness – and life for good, as I called this blog when I first created it a few years ago.
Consent to it all
To all its greenness
Life, nature, God –
So shall you grow and green
Your soul.
Looking towards Caer Caradoc and The Lawley from Brown Clee Hill, July 2022
Where did you begin your life journey? This doesn’t just mean “Where were you born” – it means where did you start to discover meaning in your life? This poem called “Futility” by Wilfred Owen raises some profound questions…
Futility
Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke once the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?
Wilfred Owen lived locally to me, in Shrewsbury, and it’s a sad poem, influenced by his terrible experiences of fighting in the First World War. It raises questions about the purpose and meaning of life for soldiers trying to survive in unbearable conditions.
But if we are to have Lif4Gd…then one of things we can explore in our life journey is purpose and meaning:
The beginning of life
Is not at first cry
.
But when the soul
Begins to know why
.
And moves in faith
That the purpose
.
And mission
Are beyond the present
.
In a future unseen
And a destiny.
Some Questions to Ponder
Are there writers that mean a lot to you? Maybe writers that live locally to you, or writers that have strongly influenced your life journey?
How do you explore your life’s purpose and meaning?
You might like to leave a comment if you’ve found this interesting.
Lif4Gd 