The Song, A Short Story on the Nature of Sound, and of Love

The Song

By Joseph Anthony, Inspired by the Bark of Bear

 

They say sound only goes so far before thinning into nothing.  Theoretically sound can travel forever, but alas, they say, sound needs molecules to carry it across time and space, and once those molecules dissipate, the sound falls away like dust.  They also say sound doesn’t exist in space because there are no mediums for the sound to travel with.  In theory sounds can be made in space, they say, but they just can’t go anywhere. 

What they don’t know, or at very least don’t want to know, is that there are mediums other than solids, liquids, and gases with which sound can travel.  In addition, it must be remembered that theory, in Greek, means contemplation or speculation.  It is a form of meditation on the nature of the possible as based on what the meditator wants to experience through his or her senses.  Luckily there are more senses than the usual ones we think of.

There is the sense of spirit, for example.  If you doubt this sense exists, think back to a time you were in a crowded room and felt you were being stared at.  How can someone’s eyes touch you from across the room?  Spirit.  There is also the sense of soul.  Like spirit, it is a conductor of all things invisible, but it also carries in its deep, shadow-dappled pockets—memories—memories of all things sensual.  The soul’s memories themselves are carriers of all that we experience—consciously or unconsciously. We have all been suddenly filled with the aroma of some fragrance from the past—everyone always gives the smell of some sort of pie as an example here, but it can be the scent of grief (yes, grieving has a fragrance, so do all the emotions).  It can also be the aroma of the pages of old, beloved books, magazines, letters, or of the brown-armored millipedes curled up in the corners of the room.  All of these scents are carried via memories on the eternal waves of the soul.

And it is precisely on the senses of spirit and soul that sound travels upon, and travels upon forever.

So when she heard the child singing, the sound was traveling the corridors of the memory, passing through the many spacious rooms of her soul, directly into her heart.  As soon as she heard the singing she rose from her desk and began following the sound.  The sound was woven with light so when she stepped into the cool, autumn night, she could see the sound leading her, like an audible firefly deep into the darkness.  And with the loving, watchful gaze of the moon helping light her way, she followed the singing through the trees, over the little creek, out into the field where it suddenly rose into the surrounding treetops.  Bewildered, she stopped and looked up.

“How am I ev—,” she began, only to find herself rising through the damp, earth-filled air into the waiting canopy of trees.  She swore she heard laughter inside the singing as she grabbed hold of a branch, some 50 feet above the ground.  She looked down at her house and the yard.  They seemed so small, even from where she stood, swaying in the sky.

And then the sound of the singing leapt to the nearest cloud.  When she reached the cloud, close on the heels of that wonderful sound, she was amazed to feel how cold the cloud was to walk through.  It was like walking through feathery snow–pleasant and refreshing.  The laughter in the singing was clearly ringing as the singer loved the game of being followed.  And with the smallest waver in song, the child took hold of a star and swung into space, leaping from star to star as if they were an elaborate, illuminated jungle-gym. 

Of course, she followed—led by, carried by, and sustained by— the singing.

Ah, the singing.  The child sang a melody she had heard when she was a child herself.  It was a song that brought her glad tidings of comfort when all around her the world was crumbling.  It was a melody of light and of celebration.  It was a song of her dreams.  She would break free of the pain surrounding her within and without and she would touch the world with her wisdom and imagination.  No, she would do more than touch the world, she would save the world.  For every story of survival, redemption, and transformation, forgiveness, saves the world.  And her story was one of great courage and triumph.  And so when the child appeared singing the holy song, she heard it immediately.  And immediately it lifted her into the world of the child.  And she followed, gladly, tear-filled, and with the utter relief that comes from a sudden rest after many weary miles traveled.

So the child and the woman sang and played in the stars.  All the while, the song wove through her soul, like the very fragrance of wonder.  And then it happened.  As she swung in a swing suspended from the arms of a star, she realized the singing was coming from her own heart.  She looked up for the child.  The child was nowhere to be seen.  There was the icy grip of panic but then she heard the laughter riding the melody of the singing.  It was definitely coming from within herself.  Resounding through the mansions of her soul, the song of the child echoed and played upon the walls and through the gardens. 

She lazily swung to a stop, and then stepped from the swing.  Relishing a moment cupped in the crescent hands of the moon, she stood, steadying herself for the dive.  With a deep breath, she leapt into the ocean of space down towards her yard. 

And as she descended, she sang, she sang with the child, she sang with the stars, she sang with the planets, she sang with the sun.  She sang with the moon, she sang with the clouds, she sang with the trees, and the grass, that dew-bathed, cool, wet, wonderful grass.  She sang with her feet, she sang with her blood, she sang with her tears, she sang with her lungs.  She sang with her bones and she sang with her hands.  And she sang herself back through the screen door and into the kitchen, where she stood, weeping, singing, praying, with wave after wave of gratitude welling over and through her.

And the child, having been heard and recognized, followed and found, curled up in a cozy bay window in her soul to dream.

She walked back to her desk, like a queen, her stride filled with power and strength, and she picked up the pen.  It flew across the page, spreading the glistening melody of hope and of grace deep into the pages of the night.

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog


Your Heart’s Desire, Part 14a, Paragraph 17–The Key is Revealed

Welcome back, Friends.

You’ve made it. 

The key to Your Heart’s Desire is revealed today.

It won’t be what you expect.

It won’t necessarily be

what you want it to be.

You might even resist it.

You might decide to turn back.

But you’ve come so far.

Your Heart’s Desire

is about to get clearer.

I am telling you from experience

that if you use this key, your life will change.

And so will the lives

of those around you.

You will be using your responses

to the previous inventories as guides

to using the key.

You will need a mentor or buddy to help you

through what you are about to do.

Pick someone tough. 

Pick someone who truly understands

the nature of your mission.

What you are about to do is difficult.

Scouring a dirty vessel is rarely easy.

If you do it however—the clearest, purest, most

Life-giving waters will flow.

And there are warnings.

IF YOU DO NOT USE THIS KEY

YOU WILL NEVER DISCOVER YOU HEART’S DESIRE.

YOUR DEEPEST PRAYERS

WILL NOT BE ANSWERED. 

YOU WILL NEVER PROSPER,

I MEAN TRULY PROSPER. 


That may all sound very serious and outlandish,

like I am trying to scare you

into doing the exercises in this section

but I am not. 

I am not trying to scare you into doing anything.

The risks to the future of Your Heart’s Desire, however,

are grave if you do not use this key.

So do not be afraid, but consider yourselves

informed as to the gravity of your mission.

Again, I speak from experience.

I know the negative consequences

of not using the key, because I have lived them.

I also know about the positive consequences

of using the key, because I have lived those as well.

So read the next paragraph

and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime.

The swiftest, surest method for clearing the channel

so that you can hear the voice of God

is about to be revealed.

Due to the involved nature of this key,

we will divide Part 14 into 2 parts A and B. 

The second part will deal with the more

practical aspects of using the key.

 

Paragraph 17, by Emmet Fox

“This is why all true spiritual leaders are so insistent upon the need for unselfishness in motive, for forgiveness of others and of ourselves too, and for a general attitude of peace and good will toward all; for only in this way can we get that sense of true harmony and freedom that will permit the clear unobstructed flowing of the Divine Mind through us.  Only in this way can we become a free channel for the Divine Energy to express Itself at the point of Being, which is our Selves.  This spiritual state of consciousness in which the Life Force finds unrestricted outlet which is so essential if we are to experience any kind of good, is technically known as serenity, and serenity, the great mystics are never tired of telling us, comes from within.  It is not to be imposed from without by manipulating conditions or circumstances, or by any exercise of the will, but can only be derived from the natural, free flowing of our Divine Energy.”

Commentary, Questions, Exercises, by Joseph Anthony

Do you see the key?  It isn’t serenity.  It’s the thing that will “permit the clear unobstructed flowing of the Divine Mind.”  What is it? 

Forgiveness

—the thing all true spiritual leaders are so insistent upon.  Fox didn’t just make this up.


Listen to the following statements by Jesus:

Matthew 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Matthew 5:23-24 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Jesus is very clear—if you want the blessings from above, go make things right with your brother.  In other words, He says, don’t even bother praying until you go make amends with whomever you are angry at—especially those people you are angry at “without a cause.”  We all know about this—we all have fantasy resentments in our heads from time to time—people we’re mad at that we don’tt even know or have never met, or that we do know but they have no idea (consciously, that is) that we are holding a grudge for our own unmet expectations.

“Raca” incidentally means, worthless, contempt, vain.  Have you ever felt these things towards anyone?  Have you resolved those feelings before saying your prayers?  That’s what Jesus and Fox are saying—make it right then pray.

And this step (which is really Step Nine in the 12 steps of AA) is the one most people do not do.  We want to be forgiven, but rarely do we want to go out and fix what we broke.  We want fast, intuitive answers, but do not want to clear the channel.  And if we do not sweep off our side of the street, “nothing worthwhile can be accomplished (Big Book).”  Things may get accomplished in our lives—we might get jobs, watch funny, informative TV shows, become involved in local politics, start businesses or relationships, we might buy houses or fancy cars, we might even go to church every Sunday or synagogue every Sabbath, but nothing worthwhile, nothing lasting, eternally significant will happen unless we forgive others and have ask them to forgive us.  As Emmet Fix would say, “that is the whole truth of the matter.” 

Forgiveness is the key to Your Heart’s Desire.

And this is one of the reasons we are so distracted and into accomplishing so many seemingly important little dramas.  We get so excited and feel smugly complacent when we see the latest movie on opening day, when our team wins the championship, when we close that business deal or get that job.  Yet somewhere inside we sense a weird failure in everything we do that is not of God and that does not move us towards our Heart’s Desire, but our vision as to why our lives are like this is clouded with resentment and fear, guilt and shame.

But we are after more here at the Wonder Child Blog. 

YOU are after more or you wouldn’t be reading this right now.

Why do we have to go through such an extreme step in order to accomplish anything truly worthwhile?  Because we are essentially here to “fit ourselves to become of maximum service to God and the people about us (Big Book).”  And Emmet Fox is clear that to be following God’s will, to be serving God and our fellows, is to be living our Heart’s Desire, which is how we serve God to our maximum and how we can be of the most help to those about us.  And in order to do this we need to live in a state of forgiveness.

This step is the key because once we have our resentments, fears, and harms down on paper, and have read them to someone else; we are then free to find the people we affected and harmed and seek their forgiveness. 

How does we go about making amends or restitution?  Next week I will give clear, practical suggestions.  This week, simply absorb the information and reflect upon it.  It is a lot.  And some readers might feel discouraged.  Fear not, many of us have done damaging things to others and ourselves and miracles of forgiveness have happened.  And if it can happen for one it can happen for all.

Questions and Exercises

1). Reflect on how you feet now that you’ve discovered the key to Your Heart’s Desire.  Do you feel disappointed or scared?  Do you think it is completely unrelated to following your destiny?  Do you feel it is too tall an order to accomplish? 

2). Reflect on what you think forgiveness means.

3). Have you ever given thought to forgiving those around you or yourself?

4). Do you think there are things which can never be forgiven?

5). Is forgetting a part of forgiving?

To close out this week, I will leave you with some other words by Emmet Fox on forgiveness.  They  come from his marvelous essay on the Lord’s Prayer.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”

“As we repeat [that line of] the Lord’s Prayer  intelligently, considering and meaning what we say, we are suddenly, so to speak, caught up off our feet and grasped as though in a vice, so that we must face this problem–and there is no escape.  We must positively and definitely extend forgiveness to everyone to whom it is possible that we can owe forgiveness, namely to anyone who we think can have injured us in any way.  Jesus leaves no room for any possible glossing of this fundamental thing…we are inevitably obliged either to forgive our enemies in sincerity and truth, or never again repeat the Lord’s Prayer….Notice Jesus obliges us to declare that we have actually forgiven, and forgiven all, and he makes our claim to our own forgiveness to depend on that.”

                                             

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog