Rest

On page 156 of 'Between Times' the lovely song spoke emphatically to me.
It spoke to experiences of long ago, when I was a pastor of an unruly
congregation. The Smokies was some distance, but there were times
when I felt a strong compulsion to repair my soul in the highlands.

I drove some distance to Cherokee, the gateway from the eastern side.
Going up that highway was a healing act for me; as the elevation
increased one by one my church concerns dropped away.  When I
got to Newfound Gap, parked and got out of the car, the concerns
were all gone, to be replaced by a mind filled with gratitude and joy.
Oh what liberation!

"I need to go awhile away
-------------
And all my cares forsaken
and in the space they used to fill
I feel my soul awaken"

A lovely poem by a gifted poet!

Death and Birth

Jonas came to this isolated place after losing his wife
and daughters Emily and Lucy something he had never
got over.  On pages 34-5 his new friend mentions a dream
about two sisters of the same names. This provokes sadness,
but it also marked the moment when his grief was subsumed:

"The love he had known had not been erased....nor his
grieving, for he lived now not only for himself, but for each
soul who had been joined to his."

Many people have occasion to grieve but happy is the one
who takes that tremendous step from Death to Love.

Beginning

This blog will now focus primarily on 'Between Time'.
On page 15 Henry described a hike of Drum and Jonas.
Among other things I picked out this sentence:
"Now the resurrected trees bore their mute witness to
the transience of death and the abidance of renewing
life."
Amazing! Written by a poet, a naturalist and quite a
few other things.

Between Times

This post simply records Henry's gift of the book;
you  may expect more posts to come.