Some Poetical Musings

“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.”

T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/index.html) keeps reminding me of talk I heard last winter on time. According to the speaker, there are two kinds of time, chronos and kairos time. Chronos time is filled with the busy platitudes of planners, blackberries, and cell phones. Chronos time looks ahead and fails to see the now. Kairos time is a moment of grace, an experience of “now-time” when you live in the moment. For me this has occurred over a long conversation with a dear friend (of course accompanied by tea), dinner with my family, sailing with the wind in my hair, during prayer, and so many more moments. Glimpses into the sacred and semipiternal.

“In my beginning is my end.” I begin this new semester with a glance behind at the old trodden path and step out to the “unknown, remembered gate.” This past fall was difficult because of the many chaotic events transpiring within my life. “However, this steep and sometimes rocky road was softened by times of relaxation. And these resting moments were kairos time for me. Hanging out with friends, watching Korean chick-flicks, praying with my roomie Maya at 2:00 AM before finals, campus ministry, OJS, and so much more.

And now, as I begin my second semester at St. John’s, I make a new beginning and end. I begin a new season, while also treasuring autumn’s fallen leaves. I am trying to continually utter my own small fiat to life and kairos.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."

Illustration Friday: E is for...

eliot
Originally uploaded by soulofarose.

E is for Eliot, T. S. Eliot. Over my break I finally finished Eliot's "Four Quartets," something I've wanted to do for years. They were really awesome! Thought-provoking and perspicacious. So here's my little tribute to the poet and writer, T. S. Eliot.

Illustration Friday: Holiday

The awe and wonder of Christ's birth...

This is a rough sketch I did for http://www.illustrationfriday.com weekly post topic. This week the topic is "Holiday." I wanted to show the Blessed Mother and Jesus in a normal, everyday situation. Mary must have been exhausted on Christmas night, but maybe she stayed awake a few extra minutes to just gaze at her beautiful Baby Boy....

A Beginning...

I am moving my on-line journal from http://oldfashionedgirl.deviantart.com to this blog. I will continue to add various sketches and such to the my deviantArt page, but I plan on using this blog to post my various and sundry musings on life in its particulars and generalities as expressed in words and the visual language. I also plan on participating in the weekly topic of http://www.illustrationfriday.com (as regularly as I possibly can) now that I have my own personal scanner (!!).

I hope that all had a very Merry Christmas...

And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.While they were there,the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:4-6)

Resume

Published Written Works:


“Anticipation," Great South Bay Magazine, May 2010. Distributed digitally and via print.

"Planning a Wedding with a Chronic Illness," A Practical Wedding, April 13, 2010

“Defining Self and Suffering,” Sainthood and Surrender, January 10, 2010