My Dream World: A Disjointed and Irrational Reverie on What Never Was and Never Will Be (and that is probably a good thing!)

"My Sweet Rose" by John William Waterhouse (English 1849-1917)
Everyone needs a place to dream.

This morning I picked the first of the garden peas.  Rebecca served them for supper in a medley with new potatoes, turnips, and onions, all from our garden.  But life is not all blessing.  In the last week I've had at least three hens killed by predators, probably raccoons.  I suppose life at best is always a mixed bag.  Happy is that man who can learn to take it all in stride, the good as well as the bad.  I appreciate the opportunity to live on a farm, because it is hard to be insulated from things like death and cutworms and late frosts when you grow much of your own food.  But there are always compensations like a trilling beagle or the joyous galumphing of a spaniel puppy.  There are the beautiful and clever things we use everyday: shotguns and tillers and spades and those wonderful trimmer/saw combinations mounted on the end of an ever so long pole.  And then there is the quiet.  It gives one time to think, and just to be.  I'm sure some folks find a way to do those things very well in towns and cities, but I've never been able to manage such things when there are too many people around.  I imagine my inability stems from flaws in my own attitudes and outlooks.  But about a week ago, I walked Oscar, the spaniel pup, from the church down to the post office, about two blocks away.  He was a nervous wreck- so much noise, so many harsh distractions.  We've not done that again, and probably won't.  Better to lose the collar and lead and take our constitutionals in the fields and woods at Briarwood.

entertainment in my dream world: pastoral and gracious

The flowers this year have been beautiful.  Yesterday, a single white tea rose bloomed on faithful Pat's grave.  It made me smile, and brought a tear to my eyes.  Were Pat still on duty, there is a good chance that those hens wouldn't have been killed.  But he was more than just a worker here, he was a friend and a member of the family.  This was his place as it is mine, and both of us would rather be here than anyplace else on earth.  It is a good thing to belong, and to have a sense of place.  There is comfort to be had in a place such as this.  So much in modern society seems so impermanent and alone and transient.  Certainty seems to have vanished with the old ways (which were often far from perfect.)  But here at Briarwood, so much of what might once have been seems so close and real.  If only for a moment, it is good to escape the harsh realities which abound in a disintegrating culture and imagine a more humane and gracious world. 

Religion in my dream world: All the tribes willingly united under King Jesus
Where "Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ as Lord"
of course with Orthodox Anglican Bishops! And enough Benedictine monks to keep us balanced and in good humor.

Chesterton has our Lady say that in days to come the seas will run higher and higher, but we who eat the flesh of God will never be without hope, because our knowledge of Christ's ultimate victory makes us willing to face the defeats which seem to dog our days- face them with a more profound knowledge of a deeper truth and a certainty of eventual triumph.  It is so easy to believe that here.  Here I can close my eyes and for just a moment live the delusion that baseball and horse racing still define our national character, and that steward kings like Arthur and Alfred still represent Christ on his earthly thrones, and that a gentle, rational, and orthodox Anglicanism is the established faith of the realm.  If it all sounds a bit like Tolkien's Shire or Narnia after the defeat of the witch, I suppose it is.  But we are all entitled to our dreams, however fanciful or silly they may be, and it is easy to have dreams in a place like this.


Alfredus Magnus: Ever King in my dream world until Jesus Claims his Crown

May we all find a place to dream, and a place to escape the unpleasant realities which surround us for just a little while.  May God give us the grace to see enough of the good that we are not overwhelmed by the bad.  And might our outlooks be so transformed by the grace of our baptism that we can always see through the present darkness to experience the brightness of Christ's return.