Wednesday, June 24, 2020

little girl found

You didn't think I'd leave you hanging did you? 

In this blog, our stories don't end with being irreparably lost.  In this blog, we find the light.  We dig out.  We move forward.  And trust me when I say, I've been there.  I've been where you are.  Whether you're flying high in the clouds and receiving all of life's blessings or down in the pit of despair, I share ALL of those feels with you.  I really really do.  

I've felt the cold ceramic tile of a lonely bathroom floor as my tears puddled underneath my cheek.  I know the challenge of getting off that floor when I'd have rather just sunk into the concrete laid beneath.  I can't tell you that getting up is easy or quick.  Hell, I can't really tell you that the pain will ever end in its entirety but I can tell you that if you don't get off the floor, you'll never know what road that one solitary step will lead you down.  

So here I am, in this strange and wild blogosphere again - just trying to find my voice.  The journey is the reward.  Or that is what I tell myself.  In telling my stories or retelling the stories I hear and have learned from, I hope to continue building up my fortress of peace.  Because we can't do this alone, can we?  And what good is learning and growing if we don't find some way to share that with the world.  My world is smaller now, in a lot of ways.  But I still feel the burn of a voice inside telling me to call out to whoever will listen.  And so I will call out.  I will yell it for anyone who might be ready to hear...and more importantly, to those who aren't there yet.  

Your wounds are not your worth. That's not mine.  I heard it somewhere.  I don't worry about original thought anymore or original content, really.  What matters is the gravity of the message.  So, let me say it again - YOUR WOUNDS ARE NOT YOUR WORTH.  Your battles help create the warrior inside you.  Reach for resilience.  Just try.  And if you are not ready, remember this - today, this morning, and tomorrow when you awake - well, so far, that means you've had a hundred percent success rate at getting to the next day.  And that, friend, is something!

We are not lost - we are on a journey.  It is sometimes not quite clear where we're headed but what is certain is that we can't get there if we just sit still.  

So, that is my message for this website, blog, treatise, whatever.  No journey ever worth taking was paved with a simple sidewalk.  There will be mountains and valleys and sometimes you will go astray.  Sometimes, you will feel like a little girl lost.  But keep breathing...keep waking up every day....keep moving forward, just a little at a time and I promise that little girl lost will someday be found. 

The Little Girl Found, William Blake
All the night in woe
Lyca's parents go
Over valleys deep,
While the deserts weep.

Tired and woe-begone,
Hoarse with making moan,
Arm in arm, seven days
They traced the desert ways.

Seven nights they sleep
Among shadows deep,
And dream they see their child
Starved in desert wild.

Pale through pathless ways
The fancied image strays,
Famished, weeping, weak,
With hollow piteous shriek.

Rising from unrest,
The trembling woman pressed
With feet of weary woe;
She could no further go.

In his arms he bore
Her, armed with sorrow sore;
Till before their way
A couching lion lay.

Turning back was vain:
Soon his heavy mane
Bore them to the ground,
Then he stalked around,

Smelling to his prey;
But their fears allay
When he licks their hands,
And silent by them stands.

They look upon his eyes,
Filled with deep surprise;
And wondering behold
A spirit armed in gold.

On his head a crown,
On his shoulders down
Flowed his golden hair.
Gone was all their care.

'Follow me,' he said;
'Weep not for the maid;
In my palace deep,
Lyca lies asleep.'

Then they followed
Where the vision led,
And saw their sleeping child
Among tigers wild.

To this day they dwell
In a lonely dell,
Nor fear the wolvish howl
Nor the lion's growl.









little girl lost

So many updates, so little time.  

For now, we'll start with a story about a little girl lost. She found herself wandering into the jungle, alone and afraid, with her family worrying about her and not knowing exactly how to find or save her.  The poem is called "Little Girl Lost" by William Blake - maybe you've heard of him?  Thankfully, this is merely part one.  Stay tuned for part two.  

There are so many ways to interpret all the various symbols in this poem and we are mostly left to our own devices in that regard.  I find myself hidden among the stanzas just as Lyca was hidden from her family.  And while I sat in that place where I was disoriented, off-course, and misaligned, I wondered if I'd ever get back to a place of safety and peace.  Do I trust the lion? Do I run? But where should I go in the middle of a world that seems like it has me trapped like a bird in a cage? 

Was there a way out, a way around, or would I find a way to be content with my surroundings?  In my heart, I knew there were people out there who cared for me and would help guide me to the next right step but which direction should I walk when it all seemed like such a maze?  TBD.....

The Little Girl Lost, William Blake 
In futurity
I prophesy
That the earth from sleep
(Grave the sentence deep)

Shall arise, and seek
For her Maker meek;
And the desert wild
Become a garden mild.

In the southern clime,
Where the summer's prime
Never fades away,
Lovely Lyca lay.

Seven summers old
Lovely Lyca told.
She had wandered long,
Hearing wild birds' song.

'Sweet sleep, come to me,
Underneath this tree;
Do father, mother, weep?
Where can Lyca sleep?

'Lost in desert wild
Is your little child.
How can Lyca sleep
If her mother weep?

'If her heart does ache,
Then let Lyca wake;
If my mother sleep,
Lyca shall not weep.

'Frowning, frowning night,
O'er this desert bright
Let thy moon arise,
While I close my eyes.'

Sleeping Lyca lay,
While the beasts of prey,
Come from caverns deep,
Viewed the maid asleep.

The kingly lion stood,
And the virgin viewed:
Then he gambolled round
O'er the hallowed ground.

Leopards, tigers, play
Round her as she lay;
While the lion old
Bowed his mane of gold,

And her bosom lick,
And upon her neck,
From his eyes of flame,
Ruby tears there came;

While the lioness
Loosed her slender dress,
And naked they conveyed
To caves the sleeping maid.