The Grafton Notch Proposals: A Swedenborgian Reflection

Grafton Notch, with its cliffs, waterfalls, and high granite ledges, is a place where the natural and the spiritual seem to meet. In Swedenborgian terms, the physical beauty of such a place is not only scenic—it is correspondential. Every rock, stream, and tree mirrors something eternal.

Two proposals—one shared over watermelon, another with maple candy—took place within this landscape. They are not just moments of affection, but outward expressions of inward realities. Seen through the lens of Emanuel Swedenborg’s doctrine of correspondences, the mountain setting and the chosen symbols tell a layered spiritual story.

Grafton Notch as Correspondence

Mountains, Swedenborg writes, correspond to love of the Lord, the highest form of spiritual affection. They rise above the lowlands as love rises above knowledge. A proposal made on a mountain or high ledge reflects a union formed in higher love—a meeting of souls striving toward what is divine.

Rocks and ledges in this context signify truth—something firm, enduring, and unmoved by storms. To stand together on the rock is to stand on the truth of one another’s being, a love not swayed by appearances or change. The granite underfoot becomes a symbol of the truth that supports heavenly love.

Water, flowing through the Notch in streams and cascades, represents truth from faith, constantly renewing and cleansing. The presence of water alongside stone reminds us that truth without love is hard and dry, while love without truth is formless. The two must flow together.

The Watermelon Proposal

Watermelon, in its simplest form, corresponds to refreshing love and innocence—sweetness enclosed in a living vessel of green. The red within the rind is the warmth of love; the seeds are the truths that multiply from it. In Swedenborg’s symbolism, the color red is always the color of love.

To share watermelon by the falls is therefore a symbol of shared living affection—a love drawn from nature itself, cool and bright, offering sustenance to both body and soul. The act of eating it together is a correspondence of internal union, of taking love into the self and making it one’s own.

The Maple Proposal

Maple candy, drawn from the boiled essence of tree sap, holds another correspondence. Trees represent perceptions of good and truth, and their sap is the inner life that flows between root and branch. When that sap is gathered and refined by fire, it becomes sweetness—the good brought forth by the purification of love.

Thus, the maple candy proposal reflects love tested and made pure—a love that has passed through heat and become something lasting. In Swedenborg’s terms, fire corresponds to love itself, and sweetness to its good effects. What was once fluid and unseen within the tree becomes visible and enduring.

Together as One Correspondence

Taken together, the two proposals form a complete image of love and wisdom united:

• Mountain and Rock — steadfast truth and divine love’s height.
  
• Water and Watermelon — life, faith, and innocent joy.
  
• Maple and Fire — refined love, the warmth of goodness made tangible.

In Swedenborgian thought, such moments are not accidental; they are representative acts, through which the spiritual world touches the natural. Every setting, taste, and gesture participates in meaning. To propose in a place like Grafton Notch, with watermelon and maple sweetness, is to weave natural symbols of truth and love into the living story of two souls ascending together.

Swedenborg teaches that heaven is found not in far places, but in the correspondences around and within us. The mountain, the fruit, and the tree were not merely witnesses but participants in those proposals—signs of a union rooted in truth, flowing in love, and refined by fire.