Sunday, June 13, 2021

The Time for Everything

There is a beautiful hymn sung in church, (based on verses from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8), about how there is a time for everything. I love that hymn, and I am convinced that, in addition to the time, the order in which God gives us his gifts, is quite removed from what we  think as logically appropriate. We get things actually in the order of our emotional readiness and maturity, which may require some lessons that delay or reverse the order in which things should appear in life. As an example of receiving things in reverse order; it is common to see that people search for a person who can love them; they marry, have children, and yet being truly loved alludes them. When they give up on the concept of love, it happens...,with the discovery that to have love in life is actually about 'truly loving' and not all about 'being loved'. It is a reverse order of learning; where the proper order, as we believe, is to learn to love before getting married. 

To give a personal example of delay; when I was in my teens, I had a diary with some of my poetry, which I lost in a movement to another place. That loss prevented me from indulging in any serious poetry for more than a decade as I was only thinking of my lost poems; until recently when I got a much needed push to write again. Now, I have an internet diary in which I can write without fearing it getting lost due to my movements, and now I even have a platform where I can share it unlike with the diary which I would have never shared. Moreover, I feel I have more emotional maturity and experience now to have a substantial topic for a poem. Everything has a proper time. You just have to send your wish to the universe, and it will take its time to set the stage perfectly, and then when it is absolutely ready, it will open its curtains on you. Remind yourself that the bigger and better the stage the universe is preparing, the greater can be the delay. The longer it takes, the further it will surpass what you had in your mind. 

This poem celebrates 'the proper time'...Apart from that, it mentions the secret- regarding what should be followed as we chart our path in life : the secret is that it is the heart that should be followed and not the written rules of the world whenever there is a conflict in the direction pointed by each... 

 THE SECRET 

The child sat up in bed that night, 
and said the prayer so clear outright,
 "Dear lord, I love you. I think I know
 that you are near, watching me grow.
 But I wish, I knew what you want of me,
 'cause I waste each day 'with no decree." 

 Each day, she said the same one prayer,
 but then one night, it got hard to bear.
 As tears fell down and wet her bed,
 her angel sat beside and said, 
"Dear child, I'm yours, and very near..." 
In her ears, she heard that whisper clear!

 "...watching you, not waste a single day
 as you end each one, with a time to pray.
 Just a child, it is your time to be; 
to sing and play and dance with glee.
 Sharp your senses, make your heart ready, 
for life's a path of discovery."

"As for that quest, the worry anew,
 'What do I have in life to do?' 
The answer dear, is hard to adhere.
 It's to live a life without a fear.
With a humble heart, you should receive
all that your God has planned to give. 

Not just the joy, but the miseries too,
 and end each prayer with a true 'thank you'.
 God sure will give all that you want,
 but only when you've stopped to count.
 God has an order, in which He gives,
 and that will clash, with your planned motives.

 You'll find seven heavens when you work your earth,
 you'll find your love when you've lost its worth.
 It's not when you ask, that you do get, 
when the soil is ready, the seed can set.
So take God's gifts, when he chooses to yield,
 and now a secret I will unveil...

 What and when He gives, will cause turmoil;
 your long held values, it will spoil.
Soon you will fear what gifts could cost,
 as you unlearn..., all your values lost. 
Now the secret is - 'It's not in 'deed',
 it's in the heart, which you should heed." 

"Oh dear," cried the girl, and woke with a scream.
 "Thank heavens, it's nothing, nothing but a dream! 
I wouldn't, I wouldn't lose all that I learn!" 
But the secret revealed in her heart did burn...
"Follow not, oh never, all deed out of fear.
 Follow me, your heart, to God I am near."