Clouds and Daffodils

I recently thought of Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" when I was watching all the cloud formations as I drove through New Mexico and Arizona. Of course, the poem is really about daffodils and memory, the clouds being simply a simile to describe the speaker's wandering: "lonely as a cloud." But I was glad to be reminded of daffodils, too, especially as winter gives way to spring this April. The daffodils in the poem are "sprightly" and "jocund'" as they "flutter in the breeze." 

As the speaker watches them, he has no idea how much joy they will bring him later, when he conjures them up in his memory and "dances with the daffodils."  So powerful is memory that it can reproduce a vivid scene from our past as though it were with us in the present: we experience not only the visual vista but also the emotional experience. 

Thirst

^{Thirst takes many forms, such as the physical thirst for water or the emotional thirst for love. There are also spiritual thirsts, which long to be quenched, as Mary Oliver reminds us in her poem.}

Thirst by Mary Oliver

Another morning and I wake with thirst


for the goodness I do not have.

I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has


given us such beautiful lessons.

Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked

and hunched over my books past the
hour

and the bell; grant me, in your
mercy, a little more time.

Love for the
earth and love for you are having such a
long conversation in my heart.

Who
knows what will finally happen or
where I will be sent, yet already I have
given a great many things

away, expecting to be told to pack nothing,

except the
prayers which, with this thirst,

I am
slowly learning.

Lion

I recently saw Garth Davis’s movie “Lion” and was deeply moved by the film’s depiction of what it feels like for a small boy to be lost. Saroo, the main character, gets separated from his older brother and then accidentally travels by train over 1,000 miles from his home, ending up in Calcutta, a city foreign in every way from his village. Garth does a masterful job of conveying Saroo’s emotions with minimal dialogue. With a look or a smile, a cry or a frown, Saroo shows his thoughts and feelings. We are reminded of the power of non-verbal communication and the intuitive knowledge of children. Though vulnerable and scared, Saroo is also tough and resilient – and acutely sensitive to his surroundings. Memories of and love for his mother and brother keep him going, determined to get back home. Among questions the movie raises are what constitutes home and family, and how love and memories sustain us through separation and loss.

Passion

How interesting that the root of the word passion is from the Latin “passio,” which means “suffering.” If you are really passionate about something or someone, you will definitely be inspired by and fulfilled by that person or thing; but you will also be subject to pain or heart break.

The passionate way can be rocky even as it is exhilarating. To feel deeply can bring both joy and despair. I believe that living with passion is living a fulfilled life, but we must be ready for the suffering that can come with that fulfillment - especially if we dare to take an unorthodox path or risk to raise our voice for the truth against the prevailing wind.

As we approach the season of Lent and retrace Christ’s last steps, remember that the journey from the Last Supper to the Cross is referred to as “The Passion.”