I love the words that the Lord speaks to Paul in
a dream: “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with
you. No one will attack and harm you.” I
bet when all of us are going through difficult moments in life, we would love
to hear those words directly from God, knowing in the end that everything will
be ok. There have been times where I have really
struggled or suffered and wondered if things would be ok. I prayed for God’s will, I tried to do God’s
will and trust in him, and ultimately, that calmed a lot of my fears and
trepidations.
Emily Dickinson was not Catholic and would not
identify herself as a member of a particular Christian denomination. But, it is said
that she often attended church services until the age of 30 when she stopped
going. Furthermore, there is certainly a
search for the divine and search for spiritual direction in her poetry. Her poetry was certainly influenced by
the Puritanism that still had a very strong presence in the 19th
century New England where she lived all her life. An eccentric hermit most of her life, her more
than 1,700 poems were not discovered by her family until after her death, as
she shared them with very few friends during her lifetime. Emily Dickinson died on this date in 1886. She is now considered one of the most
significant figures in American poetry. Her poetry seemed to struggle between faith and
doubt in her attempts to interpret God’s creation that was around her. Emily Dickinson’s approach to life was certainly
unique. Perhaps we can learn from her in
her tenacity and creativity a way to search for God in our daily lives, even if
that path God calls us to is one that is not trodden by many.
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