Diary of an Old Soul

Gayle has been busy cleaning out drawers in Mom's desk, and came across this copied in Mom's hand on index cards clothespinned together.

With every morn my life afresh must break
The crust of self, gathered about me fresh;
That thy wind-spirit may rush in and shake
The darkness out of me, and rend the mesh
The spider-devils spin out of the flesh —
Eager to net the soul before it wake,
That it may slumberous lie, and listen to the snake.

George MacDonald is one of Mom's favorite authors. Diary of an Old Soul is a book of daily devotional thoughts, written as poetry. This quote is from October 10 (my birthday!). The little poem is familiar to me and at first I thought I had included it in a blog post before, but I don't see it here. Maybe Mom had written it to me in one of her attempts to explain her unmotherly behavior. I don't know, but it is good stuff.