Comments on: Not Taken http://arlenegoldbard.com/2008/08/04/not-taken/ Here to get your hopes up. Sun, 20 May 2012 22:05:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Rosy Cole http://arlenegoldbard.com/2008/08/04/not-taken/#comment-510 Rosy Cole Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:02:10 +0000 http://arlenegoldbard.com/?p=381#comment-510 I read this post retrospectively after seeing the latest one posted on Redroom yesterday, 16th, and can so strongly identify with it. It seems to be part of the human condition, one of those Best Kept Secrets few dare breathe, and so it isolates us. As we get older our experiences become more particular than general as major pathways diverge and we are beached on our own accumulated wisdom. But we have lived well if we have done our best to help shoulder the yoke placed on humanity for a fallen Creation. I'd like to share with you a poem by Evangeline Patterson and hope there won't be any copyright issues since she died only in 2000. EXILE Yes, it is beautiful country, the streams in the winding valley, the knowes and the birches, and beautiful the mountain's bare shoulder and the calm brow of the hills, but it is not my country, and in my heart there is a hollow place always. And there is no way to go back - maybe the miles indeed, but the years never. Winding are the roads that we choose, and inexorable is life, driving us, it seems, like cattle farther and farther away from what we remember. But when we shall come at last to God, who is our Home and Country, there will be no more road stretching before us and no more need to go back. I read this post retrospectively after seeing the latest one posted on Redroom yesterday, 16th, and can so strongly identify with it. It seems to be part of the human condition, one of those Best Kept Secrets few dare breathe, and so it isolates us. As we get older our experiences become more particular than general as major pathways diverge and we are beached on our own accumulated wisdom. But we have lived well if we have done our best to help shoulder the yoke placed on humanity for a fallen Creation.

I’d like to share with you a poem by Evangeline Patterson and hope there won’t be any copyright issues since she died only in 2000.

EXILE

Yes, it is beautiful country,
the streams in the winding valley,
the knowes and the birches,
and beautiful the mountain’s bare shoulder
and the calm brow of the hills,
but it is not my country,
and in my heart there is a hollow place always.

And there is no way to go back -
maybe the miles indeed, but the years never.

Winding are the roads that we choose,
and inexorable is life,
driving us, it seems, like cattle
farther and farther away from what we remember.

But when we shall come at last
to God, who is our Home and Country,
there will be no more road stretching before us
and no more need to go back.

]]> By: Jewish Conversion http://arlenegoldbard.com/2008/08/04/not-taken/#comment-509 Jewish Conversion Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:23:57 +0000 http://arlenegoldbard.com/?p=381#comment-509 Isn't it interesting how the events of thousands of years ago can resonate with us many, many millenia later? That is why I say always do good, you have no idea how far your actions may stretch! Thank you for your thoughts! Isn’t it interesting how the events of thousands of years ago can resonate with us many, many millenia later? That is why I say always do good, you have no idea how far your actions may stretch! Thank you for your thoughts!

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