The Hills Are Alive

One of my favorite musicals has always been The Sound of Music.  And this weekend I got to see it live for the second time.  The best scene of the whole masterpiece is when Maria (the postulant aka "nun in training") has realized that she is in love with the man she is supposed to be working for and she runs back to the Abbey...it goes a little something like this:  

Maria: I left...I was frightened...I was confused, I felt, I've never felt that way before. I couldn't stay. I knew that here I'd be away from it. I'd be safe...I can't face him again...Oh, there were times when we would look at each other. Oh Mother, I could hardly breathe...That's what's been torturing me. I was there on God's errand. To have asked for his love would have been wrong. I couldn't stay, I just couldn't. I'm ready at this moment to take my vows. Please help me.

Reverend Mother: Maria, the love of a man and a woman is holy too. You have a great capacity to love. What you must find out is how God wants you to spend your love.

Maria: But I pledged my life to God. I pledged my life to his service.

Reverend Mother: My daughter, if you love this man, it doesn't mean you love God less. No, you must find out and you must go back.

Maria: Oh, Mother, you can't ask me to do that. Please let me stay, I beg of you.

Reverend Mother: Maria, these walls were not built to shut out problems. You have to face them. You have to live the life you were born to live.

 These nuns had it.  I used to feel just like Maria, I was scared and hiding in the walls of religion.  But, God is teaching me to face all that life has to throw at me, and that love is always holy.  I think its going to be my life mission to find out how God wants me to spend my love and then to spend it.  I've got to live the life I was born to live.