Categories
Culture Faith Life

The Past Is History

Before the hills in order stood, or earth received her frame, from everlasting, thou art God, to endless years the same. ~Isaac Watts

The Abbey Ruins at Alet-les-bains
The Abbey Ruins at Alet-les-bains

I’m drawn to the Old World.  My newer world is still young and forgetful. We pull up history by its roots.

Our rhetoric can be naive, as if the answer lies in the next amazing new thing. As if a heavy foot on the accelerator will take us where we long to be.

Don’t look back! Don’t look inward! Heaven can be purchased at a pre-season sale. Constant innovation and restless self-reinvention will restore our joy.

No wonder we are so tired.

The Dust of History

The river Aude
The river Aude

I’ve come to Alet-les-Bains to paint beside the ancient river Aude. From the snow-melting Pyrenees, the river flows swiftly on its relentless, timeless journey to the Mediterranean Sea.

I breathe in the damp air where once the son of Julius Caesar came to bathe in thermal waters and drink from the natural springs.

I watch a woman fill a bucketful of that same water from a faucet in the town square. Shuttered windows silently watch, as they have through numberless years.

IMG_1412

History is alive in the stones of the hotel, once a Bishop’s palace standing in the shadow of a Benedictine Abbey and Cathedral, later humbly reformed into a henhouse by unforgiving Revolutionaries.

Now her ancient doorways welcome tourists with mushroom omelets and glasses of the region’s fine wine.

DSC01203

IMG_1417

I’m conscious of the dust of history underfoot as I paint the 17th century arched bridge, my progress noted by a curious French hen.

DSC01242 The river flows, the ancient stones crumble, a fellow pilgrim quietly sips a cafe au lait under

wizened trees and gazes at the roses in full scarlet bloom.

I feel the backward pull of the past, while life’s demands draw me forward.

For a moment, paint-brush in hand, I’m free of the future’s uncertainty and the weight of history. I am content to be present, because I remember: While time is slippery, and the ages of humankind converge and diverge like the ebb and flow of tides, I am held by history’s Author. I stand on dependable ground.

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come; be thou our guide while life shall last, and our eternal home. ~Isaac Watts

 

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

4 replies on “The Past Is History”

I just read Girlfriends in God posting and the author was talking about how busy we get and let that business define our lives. France seems to have slowed you down and enabled you to look at your surroundings. It is funny that I have become busier than I was when I worked full time and some times I don’t know which way to go – my time and attention is scattered.
I have forgotten God’s call to me to rest with and in Him I heard last year when I retired.
Enjoy your time in France – it looks beautiful – and with your painting. Enjoy!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *