Stress Relief

Stress – everywhere. Seems like kindness is being pushed down and out, replaced by anger, rudeness and hate. What to do?

Today, the rescue remedy I offer is an excerpt from A Sleep of Prisoners, a 1951 verse play by Christopher Fry.

Fry dramatically investigates the problems of four men, prisoners of war, locked up in a church in enemy territory. Personal and general conflicts become explosive to the point that one soldier loses his temper and half-strangles his friend.

The play is an incisive exploration into how people see themselves, each other, and the struggles of the world to find meaning and to progress. May these words touch your heart and inspire you as they do me:

The human heart can go the lengths of God…
Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.

Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul men ever took.

Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake…
But will you wake, for pity’s sake?

Feel free to share your thoughts and reflections. 

Here’s some music and natural beauty inspired by Fry’s words: