After loss, what is next?

2/18/2012

After loss, what is next?

Perhaps because I have myself experienced loss, these poetic words of Mary Baker Eddy have a special place in my heart: "The wintry blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for heaven." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.57)

Eddy includes in her Miscellaneous Writings what seems to me to be a companion piece to that passage, giving an explanation of the new growth and spiritual awakening that often follows particularly difficult life experiences.

Using imagery of mountain and meadow, alder and violet, oriole and turtle, the article "Voices of Spring" describes life-lessons we learn when awaking from sorrow to a renewed sense of life. She writes, "What is the anthem of human life? Has love ceased to moan over the new-made grave, and, looking upward, does it patiently pray for the perpetual springtide wherein no arrow wounds the dove? Human hope and faith should join in nature's grand harmony, and, if on minor key, make music in the heart." (Miscellaneous Writings, p.330)

From this encouragement to rejoin life in hope and faith, even if in a minor key at first, Eddy's prose points to the next lessons to follow - in friendship and kindness; in "higher joys, holier aims, a purer peace and diviner energy"; in renewed purpose, patience, humility; and in the discovery of hidden strength.

Today, let's celebrate the voices and indicators of the certain spring. Why not turn on your speakers, sit back and give yourself a nine-minute treat? Here is Johann Sebastian Strauss's "Voices of Spring" (Frühlingsstimmen) with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as performed flawlessly by Kathleen Battle. Strauss composed the waltz in 1882, one year before Eddy first published her "Voices of Spring" essay. This performance makes "music in the heart" and won't leave you where it found you.

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Tamara

2/18/2012 04:38:01 am

What a beautiful way to start the day!

Michelle Nanouche link

2/18/2012 05:32:20 am

I know! Isn't it?

Amy Duncan

2/18/2012 06:06:50 am

Beautiful! Battle's voice is gorgeous, and Karajan dances with his hands!

Michelle Nanouche link

2/18/2012 08:28:38 am

Doesn't he? They are a delight together.

Béatrice

2/18/2012 08:13:49 am

This post as well as a recent post on Evan Mehlenbachers blog (Prayer ahead of time) reminds me of two healings we had in our family about 14 years ago. My husband had suffered with a depression for a few months and a dear practitioner friend prayed for him. During the February vacation a friend had invited our two teenage children to stay with her in the Alps. There, our daughter had the opportunity to learn to snowboard. This proved quite difficult for her and she found herself almost more on the ground than on her snowboard. Her knees and thighs were all black and blue and our friend called the same practitioner for help through prayer, because, as she said, she did not dare to bring our daughter back in this condition. On Saturday of that week, this dear practitioner suddenly passed on. I was devastated and felt abandoned. However, in the midst of all this, my husband was healed within one week or two. When our daughter came home this same Saturday, she wanted me to look at her legs. But, there was no trace of a problem. She had been healed during her trip home. This was such a wonderful healing, and I had this strong feeling that both healings were due to the practitioners prayers. It was as if she had finished her work before going on. Maybe also, what she saw at that moment was so wonderful, that the patients she prayed for were just healed... Of course, this is my own interpretation, and I cannot know what her experience was. However, though I felt tremendous loss and it took actually several years for me to really be able to go on, what had happened was a sign for me that life is indeed eternal and that we cannot be separated from Love (not even from the love of our loved ones).

Thank you for your beautiful post!

Michelle Nanouche link

2/18/2012 08:30:06 am

And thank you for sharing that special experience with us all, Béatrice.

Kathleen

2/18/2012 08:27:32 am

What a lovely way to begin a Saturday morning! Thank you, Michelle.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the translation of the lyrics. Here is the first verse:

The lark rises into the blue,
the mellow wind mildly blowing;
his lovely mild breath revives
and kisses the field, the meadow.
Spring in all its splendour rises,
ah all hardship is over,
sorrow becomes milder,
good expectations,
the belief in happiness returns;
sunshine, you warm us,
ah, all is laughing, oh,oh awakes!

Michelle Nanouche link

2/18/2012 08:37:02 am

Thank you, Kathleen! I was wondering about the words. Wondering, too, about the timing between the composing of the waltz, the writing of the lyrics, and Mrs. Eddy's article written a year later. Was it performed in Boston? I read that when it was first composed it wasn't well received until it was performed in Moscow sometime later, but no date was given for the later performances. If it was performed, was it in English? Did Mrs. Eddy know the words? A year seems a short time for a composition to travel from Europe to the US and reach the stage considering it would have involved taking a slow boat! Was this an example of the one Mind, God revealing a message through song and sermon on two sides of the ocean? What can't be overlooked is the healing message pursues similar lines. Lovely, lovely, and healing.

Kathleen

2/18/2012 10:47:02 am

I can't find any information that this was performed in Boston prior to Mrs. Eddy's writing this article, but she must have known about Strauss, as he performed at the Boston Festival, "later, in the 1870's." (from Wikipedia).

Another musical connection in Mrs. Eddy's life would have been Brigham Bicknell Young, a nephew of the founder of the Mormon Church. He was a renown musician who married an Italian musician and teacher. For a while, they lived and performed in Europe, so they certainly would have known the works of Strauss. Bicknell, as he was known, became a Christian Scientist and left his career in music to lecture. Upon Edward Kimball's passing, Bicknell was chosen to teach the normal class and was later a first reader of the Mother Church. His biography is very interesting:
http://young.parkinsonfamily.org/joseph/docs/brigham-bicknell-young.htm

Michelle Nanouche link

2/18/2012 11:33:35 am

Thank you, Kathleen - you busy little Junebug! I am grateful for your research on this. I have always loved this waltz, but never connected the title with Mrs; Eddy's article til today. What fun!

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