A Musing Table: Snow White as a Contemplative
Well i know this will sound pretty strange to some. But i love the thought of Snow White as a contemplative soul. There is more than one way to be domestic, and i just love Snow White's:
"And as you sweep the room
Imagine that the broom
Is someone that you love
And soon you'll find you're dancing to the tune"
--From So Whistle While You Work
Isnt that a huge part of what contemplation is? Seeing our "beloved" in our everyday domestic life, and simply "doing little things for the love of Him" (as both Brother Lawrence and St Therese would say)?
Funny what we find in fairy tales. But if Christianity is The Living Fairy Tale, the deepest Happily Ever After, then it really is behind our best fairy tales really, that ground of the archetypal.
Something else too.... I'm a big believer in co-in-see-dance (the "coincidences" of our lives as God dancing with us). And on Easter, after having had that Snow White dream, (long story) i was told that one of my favorite icons (see here; close up here) which has always reminded me of Snow White for some reason, is also called Our Lady of the Snows. Something feels so nice there in that connection, so special, archetypal, ancient.
Well i know this will sound pretty strange to some. But i love the thought of Snow White as a contemplative soul. There is more than one way to be domestic, and i just love Snow White's:
"And as you sweep the room
Imagine that the broom
Is someone that you love
And soon you'll find you're dancing to the tune"
--From So Whistle While You Work
Isnt that a huge part of what contemplation is? Seeing our "beloved" in our everyday domestic life, and simply "doing little things for the love of Him" (as both Brother Lawrence and St Therese would say)?
Funny what we find in fairy tales. But if Christianity is The Living Fairy Tale, the deepest Happily Ever After, then it really is behind our best fairy tales really, that ground of the archetypal.
Something else too.... I'm a big believer in co-in-see-dance (the "coincidences" of our lives as God dancing with us). And on Easter, after having had that Snow White dream, (long story) i was told that one of my favorite icons (see here; close up here) which has always reminded me of Snow White for some reason, is also called Our Lady of the Snows. Something feels so nice there in that connection, so special, archetypal, ancient.
Now i know we shouldnt make our fairy tales and our archetypes into idols....and we do that when we forget who is really behind them, Our Creator. But when we see these things instead as precious gifts He gives, as a way for Him to reach us, well then they really are so healing i feel.
Another way to put it is something Christine of Abbey of the Arts said in a comment after her Lectio Visio post:
"our spiritual journey is about holding the tension between the way of images and the way of unknowing. Holding too tightly to our images is idolatry, whereas holding too tightly to the way of unknowing as the only path leads to a sense of futility of ever coming to any understanding of how God works within us and the world."
Life isn't futile, even when things seem at their worst, more and more i am just coming to believe this. That life really IS magical. Its just that its not the presto flashy magic of the occult as we've been taught... but rather the true magic and miracles of God's precious love for us....