The Long Walk Home

“I leant upon a coppice gate   When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The Century’s corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.”

Thomas Hardy- The Darkling Thrush

“Prayer is the means that God has given us to survive, Threough prayer we can sustain our human dignity and the freedom of our uniqueness but still love other people as well. Through prayer we can be freed from the suffocating influences of bad relationships, past and present.  The rich communication between us and God in prayer enables us to relate to other people as he relates to us. Prayer makes it possible to contribute postively to our relationships, making the world less of a jungle of wild animals, more a world of friendships.”

James Houston- The Transforming Friendship.

“As they went on their way, they came to a pleasant river, The River of the Water of Life. Their way lay just upon the bank of the River; here therefore they walked with great delight. They drank also if the water of the River, which was pleasant and enlivening to their weary spirits. On the banks of this River were green trees, bearing all manor of delightful fruit. On either side of the River was also a Meadow, curiously beautified with lilies and green all the year long. In this Meadow they lay down and slept, for there they might lie down safely.”

John Bunyan- Pilgrims Progress

“Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress, but this:
The grace that orders our trouble and pain,
And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.”

(J.Piper)

“Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I’m all right, I’m all right
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it’s all right, it’s all right
for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong”

Paul Simon- American Tune