The trudge

I was tired of walking---really, trudging is what it had become. 

I guess I was just tired…Sunday afternoons are made for resting aren’t they?  The sun had lured me out the door but my energy was flagging…a cold coming on perhaps?

So I turned off the beaten track and settled myself on a little rise amongst the barren poplars…overlooking the sea just beyond--

  And I pulled out my new book of Robert Frost’s poems (on my Kindle, of course)…and I just sat there warmed by sunshine, lulled by a trickle of water close by, and browsed among neatly laid lines of words for awhile, and read—of roses, and hayfields, of woods, and of butterflies, sorrow and love. I’ve always like Frost’s way of putting things. 

And I sat silent for awhile, wordless and content to have found a spot to soak in sun.

Eventually, treading my way home, I turned aside at the little abandoned quarry—a pocket of water and silence.  Louie used to stop here for a drink on our walks. It’s been a long while.

I was wishing I were home already.  Tired of walking.  Tired of old tired roads.

A little further along I saw a track uphill I had never noticed before.   Who can resist a new trail to an unknown destination?

Curiosity overcame tired legs and up we went…

It was just a short climb to a tabletop of stone with a panoramic view. So that’s how you get here!  I’d always seen this lone fir on its rocky promontory from the highway and wondered…

Now I know!

Sweet surprise for an afternoon’s trudge.

--LS

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.” Eccl 11:7 KJV

P.S.  If you enjoy Robert Frost’s poetry, don’t miss his first anthology, A Boy’s Will, available free online at BooksShouldBeFree.com

The Grandeur of God

Today, from the archives, this scrumptious morsel of words that bear reading and re-reading, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

"The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed.  Why do men then now not reck his rod?*

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."

--by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

I’m grateful for the Spirit of God who makes those He inhabits to be lights in dark places despite themselves!  Shine on!

--LS

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Jn.8:12 ESV

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Mt.5:14 ESV

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*"reck His rod" = heed His divine authority

Edited from the Archives--Dec.3,2010

We dug the hole…

We chose the spot
We dug the hole

We laid the maples in the ground
To have and hold

As autumn falls
To winters sleep
We pray that somehow in the spring
The roots grow deep

And many years from now
Long after we are gone
These trees will spread their branches out
And bless the dawn…

[Lyrics by Andrew Peterson]

This is the story of parenting, symbolically played out this spring in our front yard as we planted my fledgling maple tree, raised in hope, from a stray seed…

Take a moment to enjoy Andrew Peterson’s sentimental reflection in ‘Planting Trees’.  Have a tissue handy.

Blessings on you in your tree planting…

--LS

When the Sun Shines…

One somber day this week I went out just for the quiet stroll of it—not looking for exercise—but just to stretch my legs and chew on memory verses…”You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.”  Hmm…dying on the outside, but very much alive within…

Kinda like a day mid-winter when the cheeriest sights are sad little ponies in raincoats.

…and the brightest things around are the roadside grasses, long dead, but still stalwart and bright…

But when the sun shines, as it did today, I remember what SKY BLUE is!

And even a common laurel hedge glows chartreuse!

Donkeys will always find something to be glum about I suppose…

I know.  I can be a bit of an Eeyore myself, but not today! It’s just too wonderful to see the sun so unexpectedly ( :

Speaking of unexpected, what’s this! A mini magenta ‘poof’ out the end of an otherwise humdrum bud…

 

Delightful the unexpected things one sees, when the sun shines…

--LS

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Mt.5:16

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. Is.60:1

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Oh, and having mentioned donkeys, can I make an addendum?!  Recently I received this G.K. Chesterton poem from a friend, written from a donkey’s point of view… As only G.K. could say it:

The Donkey

BY G. K. CHESTERTON

When fishes flew and forests walked
   And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
   Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry
   And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
   On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
   Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
   I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
   One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
   And palms before my feet.

Storing September*

‘You ask me what I did today.
I could pretend and say,
"I don't remember."
But, no, I'll tell you what I did today --
I stored September.

Sat in the sun and let the sun sink in,
Let all the warmth of it caress my skin.
When winter comes, my skin will still remember
The day I stored September.

And then my eyes --
I filled them with the deepest, bluest skies
And all the traceries of wasps and butterflies.
When winter comes, my eyes will still remember
The day they stored September.

And there was cricket song to fill my ears!
And the taste of grapes
And the deep purple of them!
And asters, like small clumps of sky...
You know how much I love them.
That's what I did today
And I know why.
Just simply for the love of it,
I stored September.”*

*--Elizabeth Rooney
http://www.brighamfarm.com/september.html

Sometimes a poem captures just what you would like to have penned yourself.  This one’s like that.  I have spent some sweet days this month ‘storing September’ for safe-keeping.  Good thing, because finally, after a beautiful extension of summer the rains have returned.  A delight to gather our little harvest in and see what has grown this year.  Our little apple, pear and plum trees are at last yielding a little harvest!  The flower above is a new-comer to my garden, just now in bloom.  If you know its name, please let me know.  I love it!

--LS

Take Joy

All thy works with joy surround Thee,
Earth and heaven reflect thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee,
Center of unbroken praise:
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Blooming meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain,
Call us to rejoice in Thee.


I seem to have this song singing through my mind.  It is the second verse of Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee and rings as sweetly as it did on my wedding twenty-seven years ago today.  And though I haven't the pictures to do it justice this week, I will post some gleanings from my vantage point of the week...

Take joy,

LS

"...yet I will rejoice in the LORD;  I will take joy in the God of my salvation." Hab.3:18

The Grandeur of God

 

"The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

 

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed.  Why do men then now not reck his rod?*


Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

 
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

 

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."

--by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

I am especially reveling this week in the wonder of being given eyes to see God-- in nature, in His Word, and at work in the lives of those who don't yet concede to who He is... I went and found a patch of darkness to shine in and oh! how wonderful it is to know the light of Life in dark places.

"In the beginning was the Word,...

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not...

That was the true Light which, coming into the world, gives light to every man.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not..."

(excerpts from John 1)

--LS

Wherever you may be, let your light shine and together we'll light up the darkness!

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*"reck His rod" = heed His divine authority

Walking thankfully!

Just can't get enough of walking and gawking at all the loveliness...in surprising places above and below...Have been trying out doing some memorizing while I walk.  Right now it's David's Song of Thanks in I Chronicles 16 following the return of the Ark of God to its rightful place in Jerusalem...David actually appointed specific ones to have the job of singing songs of thanksgiving.  Now that's being intentional--an example that has served me well. So, even though American Thanksgiving is still a couple weeks away, we'll have a 'warm up' here this week  ( :

Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon His Name;
make known HIs deeds among the peoples!

Sing to Him; sing praises to Him;
Tell of all His wondrous works!

Glory in His Holy Name;
Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!

Seek the LORD and His strength;
Seek His presence continually!

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before Him all the earth;

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,
and let them say among the nations,
"THE LORD REIGNS!"