Part of me hungers for such bells. I almost crave the insistent rhythms of their voices. Predictable, familiar, reliable, steady bells that would insure my prayer and rest; bells that would regulate and balance the pieces of my life.
Out here in the world, my "bells" are unpredictable. I cannot count on their sameness from week to week. "Just as soon as we are familiar with one set of daily bells ringing," wrote one of you, "another replaces them."
Don't we know the truth of this. Seasons come and go, calling us to answer school bells and wake-up bells, church bells and wedding bells, baby cries and doorbells and phone bells and stovetop buzzers. They change with every passing year.
Predictable, reliable, steady? No. Out here, things cannot be that way.
Calls to prayer, too, are far from automatic. I must find ways to ring the "prayer bells" for myself. Notes stuck to a mirror, a watch alarm, a phone beep. I have to make my own reminders.
When it comes to prayer, I must ring my own bells.
(this is edited from earlier posts in our archives)
Anonymous painting, 1877, in US public domain due to age
Speaking of bells, I love church bells. When I was a child my father was in the Air Force and stationed for a time in Germany. He put in for a couple of extensions just so we could stay longer near my mother's family. Those old German towns and their church bells!! I miss them. What a glorious sound they make!
ReplyDeleteI just happened to hear one recently when I was in a part of my city that normally I have no occasion to drive through. I had no idea any church in my city had bells! Was lovely to hear. :)
What great memories of bells, Aileen! I love hearing them, and no longer live where I can do so. I went to grade school in the city... looonng ages ago :)..... and there were several old churches. So my childhood was filled with bells. I love them too!
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