Nursery Rhymes for Adult Spiritual Enrichment

Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down
Hickory dickory dock.

Just like clockwork the mouse was chased back down the clock at precisely one. "Like Clockwork," means with extreme regularity as in Ruth arrives every Wednesday morning just like clockwork, or you can count on his schedule, which is regular as clockwork, or their assembly line runs like clockwork. This idiom alludes to the mechanical and therefore very regular action of a clock.

Often, we arrive at a place within ourself that seems to be where we want to be referring to our internal life, but like clockwork something interrupts that ideal place. Its a place where we begin to feel fruitful in our endeavors, have a feel of tranquility, have a reverence for the glory of life, feel connected to an awesome power, and radiate with positive energy. Then like clockwork something comes to knock us down a peg or two or three. Its the strikes that tempt our hatred instead of love, feeds our ill intentions instead of goodwill, and tempts our cruelty by striking our kindness. This might leave us with urges of aggression, violence, and harshness because our intent for peace, meekness, and gentleness is struck with regularity. Just like clockwork, things come our way to make us feel despair, sadness, and evilness at just the time we discover faith, joy, and goodness. Even though the fruitfulness of our inner life is struck like clockwork, we need to persevere through the strikes to avoid fatal consequences. We need patience for time to pass over the urge of impatient reactions, and to maintain self-control as we know the precise time when situations tempt out of control behavior.

Opening our self to all the fruitfulness life has to offer is healthy for us emotionally, physically, and mentally. In the openness is where the precision regularity of the strikes exist also. The pleasurable comforts of life are in us because we welcome the occurrence of those feelings, despite the strikes at regular hours. Like clockwork, every time we start to experience the sensual side of life there are strikes at our inward comfort. Those strikes hit upon the reservoirs of our pleasantries to put us in the valley of deprivation where we become desolate of fruitfulness. In that hour, we persevere past each tick, have patience for the malicious chimes to pass, and have self-control when the precision regularity of the strike occurs.

We regulate our inner life to abate the negative consequences of the strikes that come with predictability and precision. Its obvious that just like clockwork our attitude of peace will be struck to incite conflict, meekness will be struck to incite aggression, and gentleness will be struck to incite harshness. In that light, as noisy and ill intended chimes sound we maintain a meek and gentle spirit of peace as to diminish harsh and aggressive violence. We know how to respond to strikes against us by our fruitful attitudes, enabling us to quell hostile responses to maintain inner stability.

We know what people mean when they refer to a hardened person. A hard person is what we become when the precision of strikes hit us like clockwork to dry up our softness. A soft person is our character when we allow love, goodwill, and kindness to be a part of us even when hate, cruelty, and bad intentions assail us like clockwork. As pools of love flood our inner life there will be strikes thrown at us like powder into water. When diddles of kindness trickles in there will be strikes like dust hurling in the wind. And when a current of goodwill flows through us there will be strikes to halt the charitable inclinations. Even so, from an infinite source there is an ocean of softness in us to be refilled by the infinite rains of tenderness to keep us eternally flowing with a river of compassion.

The precision strikes that assail us like clockwork seek to undermine the spiritual presence of this universe. When there is serenity of spirit they strike, when there is spiritual fruitfulness they strike, where there is a compassionate spirit they strike, where there is praise in the spirit they strike, where optimism permeates the spirit they strike. Those who strike with regularity and precision intend to put you down and away from infinite spiritual intelligence. They strike you down from the infinite source of spiritual power, and strike you down and away from the infinite spiritual presence. Even so, with one minute of endurance the next 59 are yours.

The regularity, precision, and predictability of clockwork strikers come through rhythmic behaviors. The words or behaviors or both are aggressively intimidating, adventurously hazardous, and self-confident in their purpose. They know your optimism comes from an inner faith, joy, and goodness as those qualities are of the universal deity. Their tactics are akin to leaving you isolated like a prune in the hot sun. They will douse you in an environment that uses you like fire uses kerosene. They will put you on show to demonstrate their striking ability like a knife thrower in a circus act. As we hear the clock ticking and the malicious chimes are about to sound, we go to an inward place of goodness to respond civilly. We find a place of faith in expectation of the next 59 minutes to come as we endure that difficult minute. We find a place of joy knowing that while we must endure the strike that is, in the future the infinite source of joy will persist.