Will by Alfred Tennyson
I
“O well for him whose will is strong!
He suffers, but he will not suffer long;
He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong:
For him nor moves the loud world’s random mock
Nor all Calamity’s hugest waves confound
Who seems a promontory of rock,
That compass’d round with turbulent sound
In middle ocean meets the surging shock,
Tempest-buffeted, citadel-crown’d.
II
But ill for him, who, bettering not with time,
Corrupts the strength of heaven-descended Will,
And ever weaker grows thro’ acted crime,
Or seeming-genial venial fault,
Recurring and suggesting still!
He seems as one whose footsteps halt,
Toiling in immeasurable sand,
And o’er a weary sultry land,
Far beneath a blazing vault,
Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill,
The city sparkles like a grain of salt.
Free will never constrains to retaliation, neither is it distracted or dislocated by the cacophony of human ignorance or the din of unsettled spirits. When oriented correctly, that is, when it is opened only to the highest and finest impulses of which you are aware, it is your greatest ally. When it is centered in relation to the visible and invisible field of circumstance that surrounds you, it will be the cause of your eventual downfall.Free will is the key to both salvation and damnation. It is the door of night or the gate of light depending on how it is used. When compelled by love and made plumb by truth, will ushers in the light of day and understanding, giving vision to its bearer. When, conversely, will is motivated by that which multiplies in the absence of love, its primary effect is to confound, distort and destroy.
Man has an unlimited capacity to take things for granted and his abuse of the most powerful tool in his possession, free will, shall prove to be his undoing, lest he learn to employ it correctly and let it mature through right use over time.
Gregory Hake 
Your post on Will is a blessing taken to heart.
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Will in its essence is the wellspring of creative cause, the impulse of coordinated, ongoing creation. Although we are designed to give form and voice to that will in unique, individual ways, we can also “corrupt” that will by supplanting it with self-concerned objectives designed to enhance a sense of isolated individual glory.
Yielding to the Will at the center of all things does not cause a loss of individual identity or value – quite the opposite, in fact. What is given away in this sense is returned many fold. This post presents such a vital meditation!
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Free will is both a responsibility and a privilege. It’s good to consider how we exercise our free will and if we really appreciate the impact that it has.
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I am always surprised at how much can get done when someone really activates their willpower. Yet will is just a tool, to either be used properly or misused. There is inertia involved as well, as it is more difficult to make the right choices when you are habitually making the wrong ones. Alternatively, the right choice can be second nature when it is consistently made. There are many things looking to undo the man or woman who is interested in living a life of righteousness, and an iron will that is focused in the right direction is both an amazing armor and a powerful weapon.
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For years I’ve heard the question posed, was free will an error on the part of our creator? It was a gift and a tool so we could do our job. Thanks for your thoughts on the subject.
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This poem illustrates well the result of our momentary choices. When I entertain a feeling that is less than I know to be righteous or having failed that gate allow my words or actions to continue on the downward slope I realize it’s not just the immediate circumstance I’ve ruined but it creates a fissure to the chasm of hell. We are the connectors of something coming into the Earth; Heaven or Hell. Our free will seems to be one of the junctures for this. Great explanation for a subject that doesn’t seem to get explored much, thank you.
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A gift with tremendous responsibility, one that should be seen as an ultimate privilege reserved for tempered, selfless and just function. That’s how powerful the will is for people either bless the world or curse it by wielding the power to create or destroy and it happens in even the littlelest of ways, things we tend to casually brush off, much less our gross displays of ignorance.
The thing is, there can be no laws put forth to fully bind up the release of ill will; there is simply cause and consequence as the primary rule and we must all learn our lessons here and hopefully sooner rather than later come to the full realization of the epitome of self-governance.
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Thanks for the dose of Tennyson this morning!
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