I remembered this one recently, and found it in my collected Kipling, and thought that it might interest people.
THE ANSWER
A rose, in tatters on the garden path, Cried out to God and murmured 'gainst His Wrath, Because a sudden wind at twilight's hush Had snapped her stem alone of all the bush. And God, Who hears both sun-dried dust and sun, Had pity, whispering to that luckless one. "Sister, in that thou sayest We did not well - "What voices heardst thou when thy petals fell?" And the Rose answered, "In that evil hour "A voice said, 'Father, wherefore falls the flower? "'For lo, the very gossamers are still.' And a voice answered, 'Son, by Allah's Will!'" Then softly as a rain-mist on the sward, Came to the Rose the Answer of the Lord: "Sister, before We smote the Dark in twain, "Ere yet the Stars saw one another plain, "Time, Tide, and Space, We bound unto the task "That thou shouldst fall, and such an one should ask." Whereat the withered flower, all content, Died as they die whose days are innocent; While he who questioned why the flower fell Caught hold of God and saved his soul from Hell.
Rudyard Kipling, 1892.
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Maya, Elohim of Eli in service to Blandine
maya@tcp.co.uk
-- "There are those who say that wizards are subject to temptations and addictions beyond the understanding of ordinary men: the addiction to shape-changing, or to meditation under the influence of certain herbs and conditions of the stars; the obsession with knowledge, and the development of power. Yet this is not so. Temptation is temptation, obsession is obsession, and choice is choice." - Isar Chelladan, Precepts of Wizardry. -- "Dog Wizard", Barbara Hambly.
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