Wednesday, August 25, 2010

A Week in Gratitude - Day 4


Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey.
~Marcel Proust


Today I am grateful for:

~ pain that moves me to ask for help not death

~ doctors who help heal my body and mind

~ friends who help heal my soul

~ most importantly, God, who places these helpers in my life so that when He places me in the life of others, I will be able to serve



A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter





Angel of the Waters, Central Park


Bethesda Fountain is the central feature on the lower level of the terrace, constructed in 1859-64, which is enclosed within two elliptical balustrades. The pool is centered by a fountain sculpture designed by Emma Stebbins in 1868 and unveiled in 1873. Stebbins was the first woman to receive a public commission for a major work of art in New York City. The bronze, eight-foot statue depicts a female winged angel touching down upon the top of the fountain, where water spouts and cascades into an upper basin and into the surrounding pool. It was the only statue in the park called for in the original design. Beneath her are four four-foot cherubs representing Temperance, Purity, Health, and Peace. Also called the Angel of the Waters, the statue refers to the Gospel of John, Chapter 5 where there is a description of an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda, giving it healing powers. In Central Park the referent is the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842, providing the city for the first time with a dependable supply of pure water: thus the angel carries a lily in one hand, representing purity, and with the other hand she blesses the water below. The base of the fountain was designed by the architect of all the original built features of Central Park, Calvert Vaux, with sculptural details, as usual, by Jacob Wrey Mould. In Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted's 1858 Greensward Plan, the terrace at the end of the Mall overlooking the naturalistic landscape of the Lake was simply called The Water Terrace, but after the unveiling of the angel, its name was changed to Bethesda Terrace.Source: Wikipedia



4 comments:

  1. and alcohol is but a sympton, who knew that the real problems lie so deep without our souls. Hang in there my friend, you are not alone, and you important to those whose lives you touch :)

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  2. One of those lives you touch was mine today, with that absolutely wonderful comment on my blog.
    I'm grateful you're sober and you blog.

    Chris

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  3. I think I just went on a fabulous trip around the world in photos, and researched guidance. Thanks to Marie, who has been putting all this stuff together!

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Thank you for sharing!