irrigate the desert

"To 'debunk' the emotion, on the basis of a commonplace rationalism, is within almost anyone's capacity. In the second place, I think Gaius and Titius may have honestly misunderstood the pressing educational need of the moment. They see the world around them swayed by emotional propaganda—they have learned from tradition that youth is sentimental—and they conclude that the best thing they can do is to fortify the minds of young people against emotion. My own experience as a teacher tells an opposite tale. For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts."


Another quote from C.S. Lewis' essay "Men Without Chests", which is a call to  enhance the spiritual susceptibilities as a way to strengthen us to face untruth and treacheries, instead of beating down emotion. The phrase "irrigate deserts" particularly stuck in my mind over the past days, and I wanted to put it down here, just to remember it always.

illumine my inner being

" I have wakened in Thy shelter O my God, and it becometh him that seeketh that shelter to abide within the Sanctuary of Thy protection and the Stronghold of Thy defense. Illumine my inner being, O my Lord, with the splendors of the Dayspring of Thy Revelation, even as Thou didst illumine my outer being with the morning light of Thy favor." —Bahá’u’lláh 

This painting by Magritte (Belgian artist) always stood apart for me. I have a very personal reading: The blue sky, the dark woods, the tree outside the house, the reflection in the pond in front of the house, all have great symbolism in my mind. The sky--the Source, the Shelter. The house--another, inner shelter. The forest--the outer world, dark and uncertain. The tree--personal growth, our own life. The lamp,--conscience. The reflection in the pond--the relation between the material and the spiritual. The lights in the upstairs windows--inner light, inner wisdom, deeper conscience, illumination.