and the kingdom will have a king again

I just finished The Amber Spyglass (last of Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy) and it prompted a few thoughts. What the conclusion of these thoughts are I'm not sure, but I thought I'd share them anyway. That way maybe they'd stop rolling randomly around in my head.

I just found the whole idea of tearing down the Kingdom of Heaven so they could build the Republic of Heaven very intriguing. When they were making the film travesty of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe one of the advertising phrases was "long live the true king." I remember being struck by the thought of how many good stories there are which have the theme of putting the rightful king into place.

It's an interesting thing to think of in our modern society which is based on the idea of The Republic, and democracy, and government for the people, by the people, and of the people. But the fact is you can't have a king unless he is acknowledged by his subjects. If that weren't true we wouldn't have stories like Robin Hood and Prince John and King Richard. Or maybe it is more accurate to say that you can't have a true king without the acknowledgement of his subjects.

There is something very powerful in the idea of a true king. Of a noble king. Of a self-sacrificing king. A story that illustrates this very well is Stephen Lawhead's Song of Albion series. It is based on the Celtic ways of kingship. A king whose role is simply and complexly to serve his people.

It is very interesting to think that we are meant to bring not the republic of heaven, but the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. I think there is a lot more to be explored here about the difference between being a citizen of a republic and a citizen of a kingdom. At least we know this, we serve the truest of all true kings.

the last battle

"A good deal of Puzzle's grey nose and face could be seen through the open mouth of the lion's head. No one who had ever seen a real lion would have been taken in for a moment. But if someone who had never seen a lion looked at Puzzle in his lionskin, he just might mistake him for a lion, if he didn't come too close, and if the light was not too good, and if Puzzle didn't let out a bray and didn't make any noise with his hoofs."

"His name was King Tirian, and he was between twenty and twenty-five years old; his shoulders were already broad and strong and his limbs, full of hard muscle, but his beard was still scanty. He had blue eyes and a fearless, honest face." (King Tirian is my Narnian crush.)

"'Do you think I care if Aslan dooms me to death?' sad the King. 'That would be nothing, nothing at all. Would it not be better to be dead than to have this horrible fear that Aslan had come and is not like the Aslan we have believed in and longed for? It is as if the sun rose one day and were a black sun.'"

"As soon as Tirian saw that she was the best pathfinder of the three of them he put her in front. And then he was astonished to find how silently and almost invisibly she glided on before them.
'By the Mane!' he whispered to Eustace. 'This girls is a wondrous wood-maid. If she had Dryad's blood in her she could scarce do better.'
'She's so small, that's what helps,' whispered Eustace. But Jill from in front said: 'S-s-s-h, less noise.'"

"'What are you doing, Sire?' asked Jewel sharply.
'Drawing my sword to smite off the head of the accused Ass,' said Tirian in a terrible voice. 'Stand clear, girl.'
'Oh don't, please don't,' said Jill. 'Really, you musn't. It wasn't his fault. It was all the Ape. He didn't know any better. And he's very sorry. He's a nice donkey. His name's Puzzle. And I've got my arms round his neck.'
'Jill,' said Tirian, 'you are the bravest and most woodwise of all my subjects, but also the most malapert and disobedient. Well: let the Ass live. What have you to say for yourself, Ass?'"

"They drank from a stream, splashed their faces with water, and tumbled into their bunks, except for Puzzle and Jewel who said they'd be more comfortable outside. This perhaps was just as well, for a Unicorn and a fat, full-grown donkey indoors always make a room feel rather crowded."

"'Well, at any rate there's no Humbug here. We haven't let anyone take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.'
'You see,' said Aslan. 'They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they can not be taken out.'"

"Everyone except Aslan jumped back from the ice-cold air which now blew through the Doorway. Its edges were already covered with icicles.
'Peter, High King of Narnia,' said Aslan. 'Shut the Door.'
Peter, shivering with cold, leaned out into the darkness and pulled the Door to. It scraped over ice as he pulled it. Then, rather clumsily (for even in that moment his hands had gone numb and blue) he took out a golden key and locked it.
They had seen strange things enough through that Doorway. But it was stranger than any of them to look round and find themselves in warm daylight, the blue sky above them, flowers at their feet, and laughter in Aslan's eyes."

"'Then he breathed upon me and took away the trembling from my limbs and caused me to stand upon my feet. And after that, he said not much but that we should meet again, and I must go further up and further in. Then he turned him about in a storm and flurry of gold and was gone suddenly.
'And since then, O Kings and Ladies, I have been wandering to find him and my happiness is so great that it even weakens me like a wound. And this is the marvel of marvels, that he called me, Beloved, me who am but as a dog-'"

"'Isn't it wonderful?' said Lucy. 'Have you noticed one can't feel afraid, even if one wants to? Try it.' 'By Jove, one can't,' said Eustace after he had tried."

"And there was greeting and kissing and handshaking and old jokes revived (you've no idea how good an old joke sounds when you take it out again after a rest of five or six hundred years)"

"Then Aslan turned to them and said: 'You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.' ...And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them."

the magician's nephew

"'I expect someone lives there in secret, only coming in and out at night, with a dark lantern. We shall probably discover a gang of desperate criminals and get a reward. It's all rot to say a house would be empty all those years unless there was some mystery.' 'Daddy thought it must be the drains,' said Polly. 'Pooh! Grown-ups are always thinking of uninteresting explanations,' said Digory."

"Digory made rather a fuss about agreeing to this, but he had to in the end because Polly absolutely refused to do any exploring in new worlds until she had made sure about getting back to the old one. She was quite as brave as he about some dangers (wasps, for instance) but she was not so interested in finding out things nobody had ever heard of before..."

"Now that she was left alone with the children, she took no notice of either of them. And that was like her too. In Charn she had taken no notice of Polly (till the very end) because Digory was the one she wanted to make use of. Now that she had Uncle Andrew, she took no notice of Digory. I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical."

"You see, the foolish old man was actually beginning to imagine the Witch would fall in love with him. The two drinks probably had something to do with it, and so had his best clothes. But he was, in any case, as vain as a peacock; that was why he had become a Magician."

"'Now then, now then,' came the Cabby's voice, a good firm, hardy voice. 'Keep cool everyone, that's what I say. No bone broken, anyone? Good. Well there's something to be thankful for straight away, and more than anyone could expect after falling all that way. Now, if we've fallen down some diggings - as it might be for a new station on the Underground - someone will come and get us out presently, see! And if we're dead - which I don't deny it might be - well, you got to remember that worse things 'appen at sea and a chap's got to die sometime. And there ain't nothing to be afraid of if a chap's led a decent life. And if you ask me, I think the best thing we could do to pass the time would be to sing a 'ymn.'"

"The Lion opened his mouth, but no sound came from it; he was breathing out, a long, warm breath; it seemed to sway all the beasts as the wind sways a line of trees. Far overhead from beyond the veil of blue sky which hid them the stars sang again; a pure, cold, difficult music. Then there came a swift flash like fire (but it burnt nobody) either from the sky or from the Lion itself, and every drop of blood tingled in the children's bodies, and the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying: 'Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.'"

"The Jackdaw became so embarrassed that it hid its head under its wing as if it were going to sleep. And all the other animals began making various queer noises which are their ways of laughing and which, of course, no one has ever heard in our world. They tried at first to repress is, but Aslan said: 'Laugh and fear not, creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with speech.'"

"When at last they were right in among the animals, the animals all stopped talking and stared at them. 'Well?' said the He-Beaver at last, 'what, in the name of Aslan, are these?' 'Please,' began Digory in rather a breathless voice, when a Rabbit said, 'They're a kind of large lettuce, that's my belief.' 'No, we're not, honestly, we're not,' said Polly hastily. 'We're not at all nice to eat.' 'There!' said the Mole. 'They can talk. Who ever heard of a talking lettuce?' 'Perhaps they're the Second Joke,' suggested the Jackdaw."

"'But please, please - won't you - can't you give me something that will cure Mother?' Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself."

"'Please,' he said, 'may we go home now?' He had forgotten to say 'Thank you,' but he meant it, and Aslan understood."

the horse and his boy

"'And now tell me at once what price you put on him, for I am wearied with your loquacity.'"

"'Ow, Bree,' he gasped. 'I'm so sore. All over. I can hardly move.' 'Good morning, small one,' said Bree. 'I was afraid you might feel a bit stiff. It can't be the falls. You didn't have more than a dozen or so, and it was all lovely, soft springy turf that must have been almost a pleasure to fall on. And the only one that might have been nasty was broken by that gorse bush. No: it's the riding itself that comes hard at first. What about breakfast?'"

"They were now in the palace garden which sloped down in terraces to the city wall. The moon shone brightly. One of the drawbacks about adventures is that when you come to the most beautiful places you are often too anxious and hurried to appreciate them; so that Aravis (though she remembered them years later) had only a vague impression of gray lawns, quietly bubbling fountains, and the long black shadows of cypress trees."

"Shasta saw all this in a glance and looked again. The lion had almost got Hwin now. It was making snaps at her hind legs, and there was no hope now in her foam-flecked, wide-eyed face.
'Stop,' bellowed Shasta in Bree's ear. 'Must go back. Must help!'
Bree always said afterward that he never heard, or never understood this; and as he was in general a very truthful horse, we must accept his word."

"When Shasta went through the gate he found a slope of grass and a little heather running up before him to some trees. He had nothing to think about now and no plans to make: he had only to run, and that was quite enough."

"The High King above all kings stooped toward him. Its mane, and some strange and solemn perfume that hung about the mane, was all round him. It touched his forehead with its tongue. He lifted his face and their eyes met. Then instantly the pale brightness of the mist and the fiery brightness of the Lion rolled themselves together into a swirling glory and gathered themselves up and disappeared. He was alone with the horse on a grassy hillside under a blue sky. And there were birds singing."

"And immediately, mixed with a sizzling sound, there came to Shasta a simply delightful smell. It was one he had never smelled in his life before, but I hope you have. It was, in fact, the smell of bacon and eggs and mushrooms all frying in a pan."

"But at that moment he was interrupted by a snore from Shasta who, what with his night's journey and his excellent breakfast, had gone fast asleep. The kindly Dwarfs, as soon as they noticed this, began making signs to each other not to wake him, and indeed did so much whispering and nodding and getting up and tiptoeing away that they certainly would have waked him if he had been less tired."

"When Shasta fell off his horse he gave himself up for lost. But horses, even in battle, tread on human beings very much less than you would suppose."

"Aravis looked twice at his face before she gasped and said, 'Why! It's Shasta!' Shasta all at once turned very red and began speaking very quickly. 'Look here, Aravis,' he said, 'I do hope you won't think I'm got up like this (and the trumpeter and all) to try to impress you or make out that I'm different or any rot of that sort. Because I'd far rather have come in my old clothes, but they're burnt now...'"

"'It was he who did all that, Sir,' said Aravis. 'Why, he rushed at a lion to save me.' 'Eh, what's that?' said King Lune, his face brightening. 'I haven't heard that part of the story.' Then Aravis told it. And Cor, who had very much wanted the story to be known, though he felt he couldn't tell it himself, didn't enjoy it so much as he had expected, and indeed felt rather foolish. But his father enjoyed it very much indeed and in the course of the next few weeks told it to so many people that Cor wished it had never happened."

"Then Rabadash rolled his eyes and spread out his mouth into a horrible, long mirthless grin like a shark, and wagged his ears up and down. He had always found this very effective in Calormen. ... But what Rabadash hadn't realized is that it is very easy to frighten people who know you can have them boiled alive the moment you give the word. The grimaces didn't look at all alarming in Archenland; indeed Lucy only thought Rabadash was going to be sick."

"'But, Father, couldn't you make whichever you like to be the next King?'
'No, The king's under the law, for it's the law makes him a king. Hast no more power to start away from thy crown than any sentry from his post.'
'Oh dear,' said Cor. 'I don't want to at all. And Corin - I am most dreadfully sorry. I never dreamed my turning up was going to chisel you out of your kingdom.'
'Hurrah! Hurrah!' said Corin. 'I shan't have to be King. I'll always be a prince. It's princes have all the fun.'
'And that's truer than thy brother knows, Cor,' said King Lune. 'For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there's hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.'
When the two boys were going upstairs to bed Cor again asked Corin if nothing could be done about it. And Corin said:
'If you say another word about it, I'll-I'll knock you down.'"

"Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarreling and making up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently."

the silver chair

"Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do."

"When she had had her bath, and brushed her hair, and put on the clothes that had been laid out for her - they were the kind that not only felt nice, but looked nice and smelled nice and made nice sounds when you moved as well..."

"It is a very funny thing that the sleepier you are, the longer you take about getting to bed; especially if you are lucky enough to have a fire in your room."

"'Don't you lose heart, Pole,' said Puddleglum. 'I'm coming sure and certain. I'm not going to lose an opportunity like this. It will do me good. They all say - I mean, the other wiggles all say - that I'm too flighty; don't take life seriously enough. If they've said it once, they've said it a thousand times. "Puddleglum," they've said, "you're altogether too full of bobance and bounce and high spirits. You've got to learn that life isn't all fricasseed frogs and eel pie. You want something to sober you down a bit. We're only saying it for your own good, Puddleglum." That's what they say. Now a job like this - a journey up north just as winter's beginning, looking for a Prince that probably isn't there, by way of a ruined city that no one has ever seen - will be just the thing. If that doesn't steady a chap, I don't know what will.' And he rubbed his hands together as if he were going to a party or a pantomime. 'And now,' he added, 'let's see how those eels are getting on.'"

"The children expected him to refuse it, distrusting the Gentle Giants as he did. But he muttered, 'It's rather late to be thinking of precautions now that we're inside and the door shut behind us.' Then he sniffed at the liquor. 'Smells all right,' he said. 'But that's nothing to go by. Better make sure,' and took a sip. 'Tastes all right too,' he said. 'But it might do that at the first sip. How does it go on?' He took a larger sip. 'Ah!' he said. 'But is it the same all the way down?' and took another. 'There'll be something nasty at the bottom, I shouldn't wonder,' he said, and finished the drink. He licked his lips and remarked to the children, 'This'll be a test, you see. If I curl up, or burst, or turn into a lizard, or something, then you'll know not to take anything they offer you.' But the giant, who was too far up to hear the things Puddlglum had been saying under his breath, roared with laughter and said, 'Why, Froggy, you're a man. See him put it away!'
'Not a man...Marsh-wiggle,' replied Puggleglum in a somewhat indistinct voice, 'Not frog, either: Marsh-wiggle.'
...The children stood up but Puddleglum remained sitting and said, 'Marsh-wiggle. Marsh-wiggle. Very respectable Marsh-wiggle. Respectowiggle.'
'Show them the way, young'un,' said the giant Porter. 'You'd better carry Froggy. He's had a drop more than's good for him.'
'Nothing wrong with me,' said Puddleglum. 'Not a frog. Nothing frog with me. I'm a respectabiggle.'"

"I know nothing so disagreeable as being kissed by a giantess."

"If you want to get out of a house without being seen, the middle of the afternoon is in some ways a better time to try it than in the middle of the night. Doors and windows are more likely to be open; and if you are caught, you can always pretend you weren't meaning to go far and had no particular plans. (It is very hard to make either giants or grown-ups believe this if you're found climbing out of a bedroom window at one o'clock in the morning.)"

"'There is no land called Narnia.' 'Yes there is, though, Ma'am,' said Puddleglum. 'You see, I happen to have lived there all my life.'"

"'One word, Ma'am,' he said, coming back from the fire, limping, because of the pain. 'One word. All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies making up a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for your supper, if theses two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I shouldn't think; but that's small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say.'"

"For now they saw the Prince. ... I think they would have known him anyway. Pale though he was from long imprisonment in the Deep Lands, dressed in black, dusty, disheveled, and weary, there was something in his face and air which no one could mistake. That look is in the face of all true Kings of Narnia, who rule by the will of Aslan and sit at Cair Paravel on the throne of Peter the High King. Instantly every head was bared and every knee was bent; a moment later such cheering and shouting, such jumps and reels of joy, such hand-shakings and kissings and embracings of everybody by everybody else broke out that the tears came into Jill's eyes. Their quest had been worth all the pains it cost."

"Then they saw that they were once more on the Mountain of Aslan, high up above and beyond the end of that world in which Narnia lies. But the strange thing was that the funeral music of King Caspian still went on, though no one could tell where it came from. They were walking beside the stream and the Lion went before them: and he became so beautiful, and the music so despairing, that Jill did not know which of them it was that filled her eyes with tears."

the voyage of the dawn treader

"We must all show great constancy," Caspian was saying. "A dragon has just flown over the tree-tops and lighted on the beach. Yes, I am afraid it is between us and the ship. And arrows are no use against dragons. And they're not afraid of fire." "With your Majesty's leave-" began Reepicheep. "No, Reepicheep," said the King firmly, "you are not going to attempt a single combat with it. And unless you promise to obey me in this matter I'll have you tied up."

"I'm beginning to feel very inquisitive about these people," whispered Eustace to Edmund. "Do you think they're human at all? More like huge grasshoppers or giant frogs, I should say."

Then her face lit up till, for a moment (but of course she didn't know it), she looked almost as beautiful as that other Lucy in the picture, and she ran forward with a little cry of delight and with her arms stretched out. For what stood in the doorway was Aslan himself, the Lion, the highest of all High Kings. And he was solid and real and warm and he let her kiss him and bury herself in his shining mane. And from the low, earthquake-like sound that came from inside him, Lucy even dared to thing that he was purring.

"Child," said Aslan, "did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?" "Yes, Aslan, you did," said Lucy. "I'm sorry. But please-" "Speak on, dear heart." "Shall I ever be able to read that story again; the one I couldn't remember? Will you tell it to me, Aslan? Oh do, do, do." "Indeed, yes, I will tell it to you for years and years."

Lucy looked along the beam and presently saw something in it. At first it looked like a cross, then it looked like an aeroplane, then it looked like a kite, and at last with a whirring of wings it was right overhead and was an albatross. It circled three times round the mast and then perched for an instant on the crest of the gilded dragon at the prow. It called out in a strong sweet voice what seemed to be words though no one understood them. After that it spread its wings, rose, and began to fly slowly ahead, bearing a little to starboard. Drinian steered after it not doubting that it offered good guidance. But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, "Courage, dear heart", and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan's, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face.
In a few moments the darkness turned into a greyness ahead, and then, almost before they dared to begin hoping, they had shot out into the sunlight and were in the warm, blue world again. And all at once everybody realised that there was nothing to be afraid of and never had been.

"In our world," said Eustace, "a star is a huge ball of flaming gas." "Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of."

And just as the girl, gliding in the shallow water, and Lucy, leaning over the bulwark, came opposite to one another, the girl looked up and stared straight into Lucy's face. Neither could speak to the other and in a moment the Sea Girl dropped astern. But Lucy will never forget her face. Lucy had liked that girl and she felt certain the girl had like her. In that one moment they had somehow become friends. There does not seem to be much chance of their meeting again in that world or any other. But if ever they do they will rush together with their hands held out.

And suddenly there came a breeze from the east, tossing the top of the wave into foamy shapes and ruffling the smooth water all round them. It lasted only a second or so but what it brought them in that second none of those three children will ever forget. It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace would never talk about it afterwards. Lucy could only say, "It would break your heart." "Why," said I, "was it so sad?" "Sad!! No," said Lucy.

prince caspian

"The worst of sleeping out of doors is that you wake up so dreadfully early. And when you wake you have to get up because the ground is so uncomfortable. And it makes matters worse if there is nothing but apples for breakfast and you had nothing but apples for supper the night before. When Lucy had said - truly enough - that it was a glorious morning, there did not seem anything else nice to be said."

"They feel safer if no one in Narnia dares to go down to the coast and look out to sea - towards Aslan's land and the morning and the eastern end of the world."

"'Now, once and for all, Nikabrik,' said Trumpkin. 'Will you contain yourself, or must Trufflehunter and I sit on your head?'"

"Caspian did not really want honey, without bread, at that time in the morning, but he thought it polite to accept. It took him a long time afterwards to get unsticky."

"Instead of getting drowsier she was getting more awake - with an odd, night-time, dreamish kind of wakefulness."

"This cheered the boys more than anything. You can't help feeling stronger when you look at a place where you won a glorious victory not to mention a kingdom, hundreds of years ago."

"And so at last they got on the move. Lucy went first, biting her lip and trying not to say all the things she thought of saying to Susan. But she forgot them when she fixed her eyes on Aslan."

"'May it please your High Majesty,' said the second Mouse, whose name was Peepiceek, 'we are all waiting to cut off our own tails if our Chief must go without his. We will not bear the shame of wearing an honour which is denied to the High Mouse.' 'Ah!' roared Aslan. 'You have conquered me. You have great hearts.'"

"But for the tree people different fare was provided. They began with a rich brown loam that looked almost exactly like chocolate; so like chocolate, in fact, that Edmund tried a piece of it, but he did not find it at all nice. When the rich loam had taken the edge off their hunger, the trees turned to an earth of the kind you see in Somerset, which is almost pink. They said it was lighter and sweeter. At the cheese stage they had a chalky soil, and then went on to delicate confections of the finest gravels powdered with choice silver sand. They drank very little wine, and it made the Hollies very talkative; for the most part they quenched their thirst with deep draughts of mingled dew and rain, flavoured with forest flowers and the airy taste of the thinnest clouds."

i love lewis... c.s. lewis

"Soon she went further in and found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step further in - then two or three steps - always expecting to feel woodwork afainst the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it."

"He had eaten his share of the dinner, but hadn't really enjoyed it because he was thinking all the time about Turkish Delight - and there's nothing that spoils the taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory of bad magic food."

"'I've come at last,' said he. 'She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch's magic is weakening.' And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which you only get if you are being solemn and still."

"They were pretty tired by now of course; but not what I'd call bitterly tired - only slow and feeling very dreamy and quiet inside as one does when one is coming to the end of a long day in the open. Susan had a slight blister on one heel."

"Forward they went again and one of the girls walked on each side of the Lion. But how slowly he walked! And his great, royal head drooped so that his nose nearly touched the grass. Presently he stumbled and gave a low moan.
'Aslan! Dear Aslan!' said Lucy. 'What is wrong? Can't you tell us?'
'Are you ill, dear Aslan?' asked Susan.
'No,' said Aslan. 'I am sad and lonely. Lay your hands on my mane so that I can feel you are there and let us walk like that.'
And so the girls did what they would never have dared to do without his permission, but what they had longed to do ever since they first saw him - buried their cold hands in the beautiful sea of fur and stroked it and, so doing, walked with him."

"Laughing, though she didn't know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hill-top he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun, the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.
'And now,' said Aslan presently, 'to business. I feel I am going to roar. You had better put your fingers in your ears.'"

some things you should know

1) The daisies are coming up in Guildford.
2) There is a stand at the Guildford monthly farmer's market that has amazing blueberry cookies.
3) I've officially started volunteering at the Oxfam bookshop on High Street.
4) We're having a pancake feast tonight at Dave and Liz Slinns.
5) I'm reading The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe for probably about the 57th time.
6) I have something invisible and bothersome in my eye.
7) In January I cut the annoying long bits off my hair and am now giving up funky hairstyles for the rest of my life.
8) You can fly from London to Belfast for 15 pounds in April.
9) Belfast is 44.4 square miles.
10) The sun is shining, hooray!

a little something to brighten your new year

While sitting in Victoria Coach Station recently, waiting for a bus, I read this in the latest issue of Relevant Magazine:

"A mathematical discovery by Oxford scientists is being called 'one of the most important developments in the history of science' (at least by one expert). According to the researchers, by studying quantum mechanics, they have determined that parallel universes do exist."

(Other researchers still dismiss the theory as fanciful.)

Now you are a lioness

I love these encounters between Lucy, Susan, and Aslan:

From somewhere deep inside Aslan's body there came the faintest suggestion of a growl. "I'm sorry," said Lucy, who understood some of his moods. "I didn't mean to start slanging the others. But it wasn't my fault anyway, was it?" The Lion looked straight into her eyes.
"Oh, Aslan," said Lucy, "You don't mean it was? How could I-I couldn't have left the others and come up to you alone, how could I? Don't look at me like that ... oh well, I suppose I could. Yes, and it wouldn't have been alone, I know, not if I was with you. But what would have been the good?" Aslan said nothing.
"You mean," said Lucy rather faintly, "that it would have turned out all right-somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?" "To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan. "No. Nobody is ever told that." "Oh dear," said Lucy. "But anyone can find out what will happen," said Aslan. "If you go back to the others now, and wake them up, and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me-what will happen? There is only one way of finding out."
"Do you mean that is what you want me to do?" gasped Lucy. "Yes, little one," said Aslan. "But they won't believe me!" said Lucy. "It doesn't matter," said Aslan. "Oh dear, oh dear," said Lucy. "And I was so pleased at finding you again. And I thought you'd let me stay. And I thought you'd come roaring in and frighten all the enemies away-like last time. And now everything's going to be horrid."
"It is hard for you, little one," said Aslan. "But things never happen the same way twice. It has been hard for us all in Narnia before now."
Lucy buried her head in his mane to hide from his face. But there must have been magic in his mane. She could feel lion-strength going into her. Quite suddenly she sat up. "I'm sorry, Aslan," she said. "I'm ready now." "Now you are a lioness," said Aslan. "And now all Narnia will be renewed. But come. We have no time to lose."

"Lucy," said Susan in a very small voice. "Yes?" said Lucy. "I see him now. I'm sorry." "That's all right." "But I've been far worse than you know. I really believed it was him-he, I mean-yesterday. And I really believed it was him tonight, when you woke us up. I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I'd let myself. But I just wanted to get out of the woods and-and-oh, I don't know. And what ever am I to say to him?" "Perhaps you won't need to say much," suggested Lucy.

Then, after an awful pause, the deep voice said, "Susan." Susan made no answer but the others thought she was crying. "You have listened to your fears, child," said Aslan. "Come let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?" "A little, Aslan," said Susan.

They remind me of my conversations with the Lord.