Oh May I Join the Choir Invisible

Tucked away in that territory of chaos, otherwise known as my mind, was the plan to pay homage to this day, All Soul's Day, by neatly arranging pictures of departed family members and friends around the icon table in our dining room and remembering their lives with my children. Maybe next year.

Instead, we made cookies. But not just any cookie, Fave dei Morti, "Beans of the Dead," an Italian "soul" cookie traditional to this day. Easy and delicious. Some were even meant to look like bones and Thomas did attempt a skull. I think we have discovered yet another tradition to add to our repertoire.

"Oh May I Join the Choir Invisible"

George Eliot

(Mary Anne Evans)

Oh, may I join the choir invisible

Of those immortal dead who live again

In minds made better by their presence: live

In pulses stirred to generosity,

In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn

For miserable aims that end with self,

In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,

And with their mild persistence urge men's search

To vaster issues. So to live is heaven:

To make undying music in the world,

Breathing a beauteous order that controls

With growing sway the growing life of man.

So we inherit that sweet purity

For which we struggled, failed, and agonized

With widening retrospect that bred despair.

Rebellious flesh that would not be subdued,

A vicious parent shaming still its child,

Poor anxious penitence, is quick dissolved;

Its discords, quenched by meeting harmonies,

Die in the large and charitable air,

And all our rarer, better, truer self

That sobbed religiously in yearning song, 

That watched to ease the burden of the world,

Laboriously tracing what must be,

And what may yet be better, --saw within

A worthier image for the sanctuary,

And shaped it forth before the multitude,

Divinely human, raising worship so

To higher reverence more mixed with love, --

That better self shall live till human Time

Shall fold its eyelids, and the human sky

Be gathered like a scroll within the tomb

Unread forever. This life to come, --

Which martyred men have made more glorious

For us who strive to follow. May I reach

That purest heaven, --be to other souls

The cup of strength in some great agony,

Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,

Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,

Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,

And in diffusion ever more intense!

So shall I join the choir invisible

Whose music is the gladness of the world.

Poetry Wednesday

And alas, this is what baking often looks like in our house. Yes, the wonder twins were quite enamored with flour. And if you look closely, you will notice that Russell (again) has his pants on backwards. 

And finally because I am shameless. 

We want to share with you my recent interview with SixSeeds.tv as part of National Adoption Month. If you have a moment, please read the article and leave a comment. For every comment, $2 will be donated to the James 1:27 Foundation, a non-profit group located in Melbourne, Iowa, who gave our family a grant of $2500 for Lucia's adoption. 

You can read the the article and post a comment here: Adoptive Family--Johnson

And please help spread the word. If you are willing, tweet it, facebook, or blog it to your friends.

The first two paragraphs of the interview are taken from a blog post that you can read in its entirety here.

And to those of you who have already commented and helped spread the word, thank you. Truly.