'Rule of the White Stallion'
30 x 30 Oil on Canvas
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Formulating .... someone told me they were trying to formulate thoughts in their head for a meeting. Isn't that where you make a plan? God is chuckling. How much time do you spend making those plans, formulating the ideas popping out of your head?
Take it a step further...How often have you heard the phrase, "the best laid plans of mice and men."? Googling this you will find it was in a 1785 poem written by Robert Burns. The Poem was entitled,"To a Mouse, on Turning her Up in Her Nest with the Plough"
Here is the Standard English Translation of his Scottish poem:
O, what a panic is in your little breast!
You need not start away so hasty
With argumentative chatter!
I would be loath to run and chase you,
With murdering plough-staff.
I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
And justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, your poor, earth born companion
And fellow mortal!
I doubt not, sometimes, but you may steal;
What then? Poor little beast, you must live!
An odd ear in twenty-four sheaves
Is a small request;
I will get a blessing with what is left,
And never miss it.
Your small house, too, in ruin!
Its feeble walls the winds are scattering!
And nothing now, to build a new one,
Of coarse grass green!
And bleak December's winds coming,
Both bitter and keen!
You saw the fields laid bare and wasted,
And weary winter coming fast,
And cozy here, beneath the blast,
You thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel plough passed
Out through your cell.
That small bit heap of leaves and stubble,
Has cost you many a weary nibble!
Now you are turned out, for all your trouble,
Without house or holding,
To endure the winter's sleety dribble,
And hoar-frost cold.
But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Still you are blest, compared with me!
The present only touches you:
But oh! I backward cast my eye,
On prospects dreary!
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear!"
Robert Burns 1785
The poem is a narrative of a farmer describing how he plowed his field and he cut through a mouse nest. The farmer is apologetic to the little mouse but closer examination and thought reveal the true meaning of the poem. There are times in life you mean no harm or have no ill intentions, yet you accidentally destroy someone else's plans in life. The mouse represents the view of living today without worry about tomorrow or bother 'making plans'. Living today is using this moment to the best and the mouse does that. The farmer on the other hand, continues to moan over past happenings, and blames those happenings from him moving forward in life, unable to enjoy the living of this moment.
If there are things in your past holding you back, it is time to let go of them. Enjoy this day that God has graced to you.
Laurie
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”- Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”- Isaiah 41:10
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