Resting and Jet Lagging
by Elouise
The Writers’ Museum, Edinburgh
Well…I’d hoped to get a new post together for today. But alas, my body and mind (full of cotton) just couldn’t get it together. Jet lag has done me in–as usual. Not to worry. Just another little nap or two or three and surely I’ll be ready to write again.
I’ve missed writing for the last few weeks. I made little notes here and there while I was in Scotland. But getting them together will take a clearer head than I’m now enjoying. Isn’t sleep wonderful?
Actually, I do have one quotation here in my little notebook. I saw it in The Writer’s Museum in Edinburgh. The museum is dedicated chiefly to Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns.
In the overview on Stevenson, I read the following words and felt encouraged.
It is not in vain that I return to the nothings of my childhood; for everyone of them has left some stamp upon me or put some fetter on my boasted free-will. In the past is my present fate; and in the past is also my real life.
The last line is especially powerful. It confirms what I experience in myself–the merging of past and present into one life. Never one without the other. No leaving one behind in order to attend only to the other. It’s both/and, not either/or.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 18 Sept 2015
Photo credit: DAFraser, Sept 2015
The Writers’ Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland
We just reflected on the relationship of past to present in our General Epistles class (we’re in Hebrews). It is always a powerful, and often uncomfortable reflection for our students to undertake, and it is always potentially life-giving – in personal, as well as academic terms – that’s why I have them do it! Thanks for the affirmation! See you in a bit, I hope!
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Debbie, Thanks for this comment and affirmation about the power of the past. I agree–it’s not easy. And yes, the payoff can be phenomenal. Kudos to your students! As for seeing you in just a bit, I can say now–after the fact–that you did indeed see me, and that I saw you! 🙂
Elouise
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