To clarify my use of the word "Wick" in earlier posts...
I enjoy listening to music from Musicals, one of which is
The Secret Garden. The song "Wick" is one of my particular favorites (though I also really like "Winter's on the Wing," and "The Girl I Mean to Be.")
Here is the opening dialogue and the first few lines of "Wick" and commentary on their relevance to my life (the first bit of dialogue is typed from memory, but after that I found the lyrics
here:
Dickon (cheerfully): Hey-o, Hullo there Mary!
Mary (with much less fervor): Hey-o, hullo there.
Dickon: and what's gotten you in such a bad temper?
Mary: The garden is dead, Dicken. It's the most forgotten place I've ever seen...
Dickon: Did you take a close look at anythin'?
The strongest roses fair thrive on bein' neglected,
if the soil is rich enough... (i.e. hold on to your hope, don't give up!)
Mary: You mean it might be alive? But how can you tell?
Dickon: Oh, I can tell if a thing is Wick!
Mary: Wick? I've heard Ben say Wick...
***
DICKON:
When a thing is wick, it has a life about it.
Now, maybe not a life like you and me.
But somewhere there's a single streak of green inside it. (The Divine Life, hidden within me)
Come, and let me show you what I mean.
When a think is wick, it has a light around it.
Maybe not a light that you can see.
But hiding down below a spark's asleep inside it,
Waiting for the right time to be seen.
You clear away the dead parts,
So the tender buds can form,
Loosen up the earth and
Let the roots get warm,
Let the roots get warm.
.....
MARY:
When a thing is wick,
And someone cares about it,
And comes to work each day, like you and me,
Will it grow?
DICKON:
It will!
MARY:
Then have no doubt about it,
We'll have the grandest garden ever seen!!
[Spoken]
Oh, Dickon, I want it all to be wick! Would you (this is one of my favorite parts: I often imagine
come and look at it with me? myself as Mary, asking God/Dickon to work
on the garden of my life with me, to make it wick.)
DICKON:
I'll come every day, rain or shine if you want me. (I could not ask for a more enthusiastic
All that garden needs is for us to come wake it up! response to my prayer! Dickon's
dedication--God's love and promise
of support--gives me much hope!)
MARY:
But, Dickon, what if we save the garden, then Uncle
Archie takes it back, or Colin wants it?
DICKON:
Ay, what a miracle that would be, gettin' a poor
crippled boy out to see his mother's garden!
[Sung]
MARY and DICKON:
You give a living thing (Just give yourself a chance! Don't be tearing yourself
A little chance to grow, apart all the time. You are wick, and you will grow!)
That's how you will know
If she is wick, she'll grow.
So grow to greet the morning, (Morning daylight...Hope.)
Leave the ground below.
When a thing is wick
It has a will to grow and grow. (I choose life, I have a will to grow, and God wills this for me, too!)
MARY:
Come a mild day, come a warm rain, (Gentleness...the Gentleness of the Divine Lover always
Come a snowdrop, a-comin' up! breaks through the tension after a storm...
Come a lily, come a lilac! and I am able to bloom for Him again)
Come to call, calling all the rest to come!
MARY and DICKON:
Calling all the rest to come!
Calling all the world to come! (Come and praise the Name of the Lord!)
DICKON:
Oh, somewhere there's single streak of green below,
MARY and DICKON:
And all through the darkest nighttime, (And all through the wildest storms...hang on.)
It's waiting for the right time. (Everything happens in God's good time)
When a thing is wick, it will grow! (I will live and grow in God's grace!)
***
So there you have it...why I prefer the word "Wick" to "alive"--it carries a reference to this song, which has been a vehicle of God's gentle love so many times, especially at the end of wild storms.
Praise be to God for the gift of my life, now and evermore!
