Arise

He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,”
which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
Mk 5:41

Whenever I find the time, I follow several blogs. Some fill me with awe for the elegance of their writing, the depth of their understanding, or the vibrancy of their spirit. One charms me every time I stop there: blisschick. The author follows her bliss (à la Joseph Campbell). Exactly, she does the very best she can to follow it — helping us in the process to follow our own.
These days, she is helping bring out the Wild Woman in each one of her readers. This reminds me of a letter passed around when I was much younger and which started with “If I had to live my life again, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time...” The author was said to be eighty-three years old. In a way, she wanted us to start living at whatever age we happened to be reading what she had written. Christine Claire (Blisschick), in her own way, is doing it for us now.
I do not find easy to wake up the wild woman in me. I have been “wild” in my days, a “wildness” I remember taking to confession. I don’t really want to go back to those days. The letter confides, however, “Oh, I have had my moments. And if I had it to do over again, I’d have more of them.”
Her blog leads me to question myself and to discover the rut in which I feel so comfortably ensconced.
This Sunday, the gospel was about the hemorrhage woman and the twelve year old girl. As I read once again the story of the child’s resurrection, I saw something entirely different.
Every child reaching puberty often becomes a headache for her or his parents and teachers. Life is boiling through her veins and she has to be taught how to behave to be both acceptable and safe. All this life has to be controlled and, in some way, dampen. Many of us turn into Sleeping Beauty — or Ugly Duckling, depending. In the fairy tale, a prince charming brings back the girl to life. In the gospel, it is Jesus.
What would happen if Jesus came to the child I used to be and told me, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” Were I to remember all the dreams I had at twelve, with all that energy that I am now lacking, with all that future opened and undetermined, what would this girl help me do? Would I do things differently?
Would the little girl say with wonder, “You mean, you have done all this?” Or, would she exclaim, “You never did this?”
Questions begin whirling in my head, assailing me with possibilities and choices. I thought so much was behind me, when so much has been left untouched, so many gifts unopened. So between my friend’s blog and the gospel, who knows, I might start living my life again now.
Dear Godde, there is so much of You in life and I take so little time to see it. Today I ask for the grace of laughter and enthusiasm for this life you have given me so as to experience the extraordinary world which you keep creating.
In Jesus’ name.

Art: Mary Cassatt, At the theater, 1878-79