The Journey

This poem captures how I feel in so many ways.

The Journey

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,
though the whole house began to tremble
and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
"Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers at the very foundations,
though their melancholy was terrible.
It was already late enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little, as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly recognized as your own,
that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do,
determined to save the only life you could save.
Mary Oliver

We Only Know our Own Story

"Child," said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own."

This quote by Aslan in one of the Narnia classics has come to symbolize, for me, how I have begun to look at the world. I have made several life decisions lately that have driven people around me to various states of disapproval. I have recieved loads of advice and my share of scoldings. Yet, in the quiet of my own heart, I know that this is where God is leading me, as we create my life story together.

I have learned to be less concerned with what others think, yes. I have seen how scripture can be used to manipulate others and how doctrinal certainty can blind people to the humanity of the other. And I have learned to look at the lives of others with sympathy, recognizing that only they know their story and it is not my place to criticize it.

I only know my own story. And I am happy with that simple theology.