Shakespeare writes,

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here we will sit, and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica: look, how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;

There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.

Such harmony is in immortal souls;

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”

Jessica’s (My) Response:

Oh, but I want to hear it!

I want to be taken up in the arms

Of heaven’s melody,

That triumphant sound of victory,

That serene harmony of peace,

Forever peace — At last, at last!

I sit here, longing for the sky to part, to open–

For me to suddenly look down

And find my spirit being lifted in the air,

Above the Earth, above the galaxies,

Into the tune of Home,

Where patines of bright gold can’t compare.

On the days I feel stuck in this muddy vesture of decay;

On the days the Earth presses me down and closes in,

I must remember Hope.

I must cling to it.

I must sing heavenly harmonies and reach,

And reach, and reach.

Reach for those soft mercies,

For those joys that embrace me,

For those words of wisdom, an orchestra of kindness and gladness,

When kindness and gladness are so hard to find.

My Father sings to my soul,

And I don’t always listen.

Yet sitting here in a muddy vesture of decay,

A drum beat begins in the very depths of my heart.

It rises to the surface,

Slow, steady, firm, strong, beautiful.

It is the drum of my journey, my footsteps–

The drum of my Shepherd guiding me, leading me, teaching me.

So though I cannot hear that celestial chorus fully,

Though it remains quiet murmurs for now,

I’ll continue to smile at the patines of bright gold–

Until Home I have finally reached…

When the drum beat comes to a stop,

And I am welcomed in the arms of heaven’s melody

To join the everlasting song!