“These are your presents,” he said, “and they are tools not toys. The time to use them is perhaps near at hand. Bear them well.”

Reading Hopkins’ “Morning, Midday, and Evening Sacrifice”, it strikes me that I’m in the middle verse now. Here it is:

Both thought and thew now bolder

And told my Nature: Tower;

Head, heart, hand, heel, and shoulder

That beat and breathe in power –

This pride of prime’s enjoyment

Take as for tool, not toy meant

And hold at Christ’s employment.

Now there are your marching orders for middle age!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell