Truth lights my way. I finished last month’s post with that fact. Years ago I adopted an understanding of my ability to create my life by living. Strange sounding as that is, it amazes me how long I had to walk before I took responsibility for the path I found myself walking on. I am now aware that there are four distinct aspects of the Great Principle; Life, Mind, Truth, and Love.
Over the years it has been argued that the four aspects are in a scientific order as stated above. You can not have Love unless you have Life. You can not have Life unless you have Mind. (Life needs to be conscious of itself. You might say, “I think, therefore I am”.) My self conscious life must be true to itself to work harmoniously; Truth, law emitting and law abiding. And finally you have Love. Love is harmonious. Love creates blessings. Without love each day, each week, each year would be the most terrible hell. Love helps us face eternity. ( Note: the above premises and much much more can be found in the Science Of Being written by Eugene Fersen.)
This month I start with the last aspect of the Great Principle, Love. Give to the stranger thy richness of thy smile, is the gentle appeal of Love. (Science of Being page 26.) It is hoped that we should always try to express the kindness in our heart as we give service. Fersen in 1923 expressed the following; Love is that which, because of its constructive power, makes every service so precious; and that is why, especially in these days,we should always try to express the kindness we may feel to people. He goes on to write,we should not keep Love unmanifested, but should at every opportunity disclose it, show it forth, manifest it, be it in a word, in a smile, in a look or in a handshake. “When he or she looks at you , you feel as if you have received a precious gift”. An aside here, notice he writes in 1923 almost one hundred years ago, especially in these days. Today it still resonates except the handshake. Love today is muted by elbow to elbow greetings, and smiles hidden by masks. To the rescue- our eyes! Seriously, I feel the mask is an expression of love too.
Now you may ask where is the literature inspiration this month? No book with you Mark while you lean against your lighthouse? Well I do have a great poem with me. Venus and Adonis written by William Shakespeare in 1593. ( Note here that Shakespeare penned this poem while all the London theaters were closed due to the pandemic. I believe it was his first published work. )
If you have a chance I recommend you find it, (on-line if need be). It is easier to read as Shakespeare employs six line verse meter of iambic pentameter; ABABCC. Pretty impressive I know that, huh? No- Wikipedia to the rescue. However iambic pentameter was the first construct of poetry I was fortunate to learn about in Jr. high school. Taught by a wonderful English teacher.
Venus and Adonis is too long to include in its entirety here. The poem is comprised of 199 stanzas. I will highlight two. The first shows an example of Venus’s foiled attempt to express her passion and love to Adonis.
Upon this promise did he raise his chin
Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave,
Who, being look’d on,ducks as quickly in;
So offers he to give what she did crave,
But when his lips were ready for his pay,
He winks, and turns another way.
( Lucy, of Charlie Brown fame, must be in the lineage of Adonis as she never had a problem of moving the football just as Charlie was about to kiss it with his foot.)
Shakespeare brilliantly writes many examples of unrequited love throughout his poem. Love unbalanced is not harmonious. But Venus, the Goddess of Love, knows not how to give up trying to turn Adonis’s young handsome head away from his passion for hunting to meet her passion for him.
Another verse in the poem demonstrates this and the erotic flourish she (through Shakespeare) was willing to go to entice young Adonis.
‘Fondling’, she saith, ‘since I have hemm’d thee here
Within the circuit of this ivory pale,
I’ll be a park and thou shalt be my deer;
Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale:
Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry,
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.
Shakespeare’s wonderful poem Venus and Adonis gave his reading public and centuries of his fans a wonderful picture of Love, passion, and the pain of all of that being one sided, unrequited. I believe that all our lives lived in some form or another searches and reaches for love led by passion for someone or something. Balance and unconditional love in the smallest expression is a worthy goal for me to continue to age well and render my veil. I believe “rendering the veil” simply means suspending emotions of anger, hate and fear. When that is accomplished I can discern my life plans. Life lived with the energy of love is a great life. Indeed it is man’s soul intention to create a life of love for himself and his fellow man. (Page 34, Bridges of Consciousness, by Kathy Oddenino)
Venus displays her passion that leads to her desire for Addonis. That passion for life is necessary not just in physical matters of the body but also in our desires for anything we want to create.
Bruce Springsteen shared in a recent article how his inspirations come to his songwriting. “You have your antenna out,” he says. “Your just walking through the world and your picking up these signals of emotions and spirit and history and events, today’s events and past remembrances.” His passion is shown here by his attention to daily details. I feel he shares with us his creativity out of his unconditional love.
My late father shared with me, his family and so many others over the years his passion for farming. He was a success in my eyes and I am sure in the eyes of his many cows, chickens, pigs, farmhands and the crops under his care. How did I know his love for his husbandry? Not because he professed it in song every day. He was a man of a few words spoken well. I saw his love expressed in his tears he shed when lightning struck and burnt his farm to the ground. He hurt with the hurt that comes from love lost. I end this month with a poem written by Mary Reufle . I dedicate her poem to my father Richard Albert Ellsworth Jr.
My Life as a Farmer
by JAMES DEAN
Being a farmer is the loneliest thing in the world.
The field is like a religion you dedicate yourself
to, and when there’s a cloudburst you can’t be
elsewhere. Hopefulness and a worrisome nature
are among the attributes of a basically farming man.
You’re all alone with your seeds and your concentration.
You don’t have time to see friends and it’s not for them
to understand. You don’t have anybody, only a pig
and some chickens, and you have to think for them.
You’re all alone with their feed and your concentration
and that’s all you have. You’re a farmer.
Thank you Dad! And thank you for reading.
Be safe and bring your smile into our New Year!
Mark
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