All Things Bright & Beautiful

 

Refrain: 

All things bright and beautiful,  

 All creatures great and small, 

All things wise and wonderful, 

The Lord God made them all. 

Each little flow'r that opens,

Each little bird that sings, 

He made their glowing colors, 

He made their tiny wings. [Refrain]  

The purple-headed mountain 

The river running by,

The sunset and the morning 

That brightens up the sky. [Refrain]  

The cold wind in the winter, 

The pleasant summer sun, 

The ripe fruits in the garden: 

He made them every one. [Refrain] 

He gave us eyes to see them, 

And lips that we might tell 

How great is God Almighty, 

Who has made all things well. [Refrain]

-Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848 [female]

Cecil Frances Alexander

Trees

 

I think that I shall never see

A poem [as] lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is presst

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

  ---Joyce Kilmer, 1915  

Poetry Foundation: Joyce Kilmer

Spring Arrives

             

For, see, the Winter is past:

Its rain is over and gone away.

The flowers appear in the land;

The time of singing has arrived,

And the voice of the turtledove 

               is heard in our land.

The fig tree gives out her green figs,

And the vines, the tender grapes,

Give a good smell.

--Song of Solomon 2: 11-13a  

   (translated c.m.b., 2024)

The Months

 
January brings the snow,

Makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain*,

Thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes large and shrill,

Stirs the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,

Scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,

Skipping by their fleecy damns.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,

Fills the children's hands with posies.

Hot July brings cooling showers,

Apricots and gillyflowers**.

August brings the sheaves of corn***,

Then the harvest home is borne.

Warm September brings the fruit,

Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasants,

Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Dull November brings the blast,

Then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet*,

Blazing fire and Christmas treat. 

     ---Sara Coleridge (1802-1852)

     English writer Sara Coleridge is most known as the only daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and an editor of his work, particularly after her father and her husband died.  However, she was an author and translator in her own right.

     In the 21st century, a discovery of over 100 of her unpublished poems was made.  A lecturer at University College, London, Dr. Swaab, discovered them in the Coleridge manuscripts and published them in 2007.

*Many places in the northern hemisphere will still snow in December & February. The British Isles, being smallish and surrounded by water, do not always have the conditions for snow.

**Gillyflowers:  most often, another term for "carnations", though the term may be applied to other flowers,

***Corn: old-school, Old World, meant "wheat" (whereas New World "corn" was called some variant of "maize.")

****Though this poem is not overtly religious, Sara was.  She opposed the Oxford Movement (Tractarian Movement), in the 1840s.  The movement led to an Anglican Church that was more "high church" or more similar to Roman Catholicism, as opposed to other protestant ideas present in England.  [Gerard Manly Hopkins, whose work is featured elsewhere in this blog, did approve of the Tractarian Movement.  Eventually he went so far as to formally become Roman Catholic.]

Blessed September

 

   During September in much of Northern Hemisphere, little purple daisy-like flowers ("asters") are in bloom.  Across Europe, especially in England, they are often referred to as "Michaelmas Daisies."  This is due to their on-going blooming over the feast of St. Michael and All Angels on September 29th.

    The Bible does not say as much about angels as some people might assume.  But it does say some important things.  One thing to note: humans do NOT become angels when we die.  Angels were always created to be spirit only and are the servants of God. We were created to be both physical and spiritual. Though the physical must go into the earth for a while at death, due to humanity's fall into sin, the body will be raised at the end of time. We are not only servants of God: we are also His children.  When the angels fell into sin, they became the demons that are cursed forever. There is no salvation plan for them.  On the other hand, God sent His Son (who is also God Himself) to become human and to die for our sins.

     Michael is a powerful angel who shows up in the books of Daniel and Revelation. He is also briefly mentioned in Jude. His name in Hebrew means "who is like God?"  ["Micah" is a related name. It means "who is like Yahweh (the proper name for God)."]  Michael fought in the great war in heaven after Satan rebelled against God, before humans were tempted. 

   Gabriel, whose name means "God is my Strong Man", is the other angel with a name. He appeared to Daniel in the Old Testament. His main appearances were around the time of Jesus' birth, making announcements to Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, and making the announcement of Jesus' coming to His mother, the Virgin Mary.

     Other angels serve in other roles. Some are, indeed, our guardian angels.  Four remain around the throne of God.  None is described in the Bible as the cutesy little Valentine cherubs. 

Here is some Biblical poetry for you to enjoy over this happy festival:

For He [God] shall give His angels charge over you,

To keep you in all your ways.

In their hands shall they bear you up

Lest you dash your foot on a stone.  (Psalm 91:11-12, original translation)

Old Glory at Another National Park

 

Old Glory at Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Take this link to discover past postings of the US flag in scenic places.  Happy 4th of July!

Flag in s.e.Arizona

And this:

Natural Wonders of America

Flag Day

 
  In honor of the U.S Commemoration of Flag Day on June 14th, here are some pictures of the U.S. flag taken in beautiful, mountainous Northern Arizona.  (Yes, Arizona).   

  Although the pictures were taken in the fall, they are excellent to ponder this Flag Day and any other patriotic day.

 

#nature

Waterfall

      These photos are from a hike into Zapata Falls in south central Colorado last year.  The waterfalls are in the Sangre de Cristo ("Blood of Christ") Range within the Rocky Mountains.  (For more on our trip there, see the post from October, 2020.)

      Some fresh translations from Psalm 42 add to the reflections.

7) Deep calls unto deep

At the noise of Your waterfalls; 

And all your waves and billows

Over me have passed.

8) In the daytime will Yahweh command His lovingkindness,

And in the night will his song be with me--

   a prayer to the God of my life...

11) Why, O my soul, are you cast down,

And why are you disquieted within me? 

Have hope in God,

For yet shall I praise Him,

The salvation of my expression [literally 'face']

And my God.    --Sons of Korah  

Notice how the falls spill from rocks high above.  Hikers are not allowed in that area.

    For fans of the Chronicles of Narnia, which are Christian allegories, waterfalls are in many stories.  C.S. Lewis' upbringing in parts of Ireland contributed to his depictions of Narnia.  I like occasionally mentioning Narnia in this blog because Lewis does such an amazing job describing the landscape.  It is part of the great joy of going to Narnia. The Hollywood productions (as Hollywood will do) focus so much on the great breathtaking near escapes that the amount of time just absorbing natural wonders is lost.

     Lewis does mentions a number of waterfalls throughout The Chronicles of Narnia. The most well-known is in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where the Beavers take the Pevensie children along the ravine below a waterfall in order to avoid being caught by the White Witch.  She traveled by sled and couldn't follow them down the narrow space. 

    The Great Waterfall is at the furthest western limit of Narnia.  Falling over spectacular cliffs into Cauldron Pool, it becomes the source of the Great River. 

    In the last book. The Last Battle, the trickster ape, Shift, lives near these falls.  He finds a lion skin in Cauldron Pool and tricks his foolish donkey friend, Puzzle, into wearing it and pretending to be Aslan, the Great Lion (the metaphor for Jesus).  This great hoax brings down Narnia.  

    At the end of Narnia, as the move into ever greater, more beautiful eternal Narnias, Aslan's dearest go UP the great waterfall, in a way they never could have done in their previous lives.  (Imagine climbing those!)  I could not find any artist renditions of the beloved going up the Narnian falls, so I will leave you with these final Zapata Falls photos.  My husband took these.  If you look close, you can see me in blue shirt with the giant straw hat, which I refer to as my "ugly potato farmer's hat."  (This is not to imply that potato farmers are ugly, only that my hat is.)  It has warded off skin cancer, though!  And then he took one of me closer up, getting the photos you saw above.  What a day it would have been if we COULD have ascended the falls!

Backyard Flowers

      

     Once again, our backyard is awash with blooms before the insane heat of summers here takes off.  We were blessed with far more rain than is typical, plus some cooler weather, this winter and spring.

     Towards the end, you'll see the lemon blossoms.  You may catch sight of parts of the lemon fruits in these pictures.  You'll also see some of the lemon bushes near the bachelor's buttons [see below]. I say bushes because this is how citrus naturally grows.  To have 'trees', you have to repeatedly prune lower branches and paint the trunks white to prevent various types of damage.  We let ours go as shrubs, and we get a LOT of lemons.  This also allowed a second bush to grow up as a root shoot, filling a spot where we had cut out a thorny bougainvillea bush.  (We have one of those in the front yard, not pictured here.  It has hot pink, papery 'rays' around a cluster of small white flowers.  It's surprising this bougainvillea blooms anymore, considering its age and how many times it has been trimmed back.) 

     This year, there are a lot of Icelandic-type poppies in various colors.  (Our California poppies show foliage but no blooms yet.  You can check out some of the previous posts that show backyard blooms in past years.  You'll see the orange California poppies there.  Use the menu item with my name.)  Poppies are in the "mallow family", along with hibiscus and other flowers.

     There are also the 'cornflower blue' bachelor's buttons, or chicory.  Yes, the roots of these are used to make the ground chicory southerners use in coffee sometimes.  A couple of our bachelor's buttons, in close proximity, are about 3-1/2 feet (slightly over one meter) tall. These flowering plants are closely related to dandelions.  All of these are in the "composite family", which includes sunflowers and daisies.  (Discussions of composite flowers are in my older posts on backyard blooms.)

    Speaking of daisies in the composite family, there's a spot of orange in some of these pictures. This is an African daisy.  We actually had bigger swaths of both yellow and orange African daisies in other sections of the yard.  They've mostly bloomed out and gone to seed.

    Return readers may recall that my favorite flower is the black-eyed Susan.  Though it is rather hot for them by the time we get enough hours of sun to suit them here, we've had some success off and on the past few years getting some to bloom.  (It took years and lots of over-seeding for any success.)  I believe I saw the foliage of one 'Susan' tucked away.)

     Yet one other bloom on the scrawny looking shrub is one form of plant we call 'bird of paradise' here.  It comes in a blue and purple blooming variety and a yellow and orange blooming variety.  There is a completely different type of flower, striking in fiery shades, which blooms here also called bird of paradise. The bloom is somewhat bird shaped.  We do not have those.

    Please enjoy what we do have.  For those of you still "shivering" in colder climes, maybe this will perk you up.  Spare us some sympathy when we're broiling by the end of May!

Winter in All Our Lives

[winter 2022-23 has been very wet and snowy or rainy throughout much of the US]

There is a winter in all of our lives,

a chill and darkness that makes us yearn
for days that have gone
or put our hope in days yet to be.
Father God, you created seasons for a purpose.

Spring is full of expectation
buds breaking
frosts abating and an awakening
of creation before the first days of summer.
Now the sun gives warmth
and comfort to our lives
reviving aching joints
bringing colour, new life
and crops to fruiting.

Autumn gives nature space
to lean back, relax and enjoy the fruits of its labour
mellow colours in sky and landscape
as the earth prepares to rest.
Then winter, cold and bare as nature takes stock
rests, unwinds, sleeps until the time is right.

An endless cycle
and yet a perfect model.
We need a winter in our lives
a time of rest, a time to stand still
a time to reacquaint ourselves
with the faith in which we live.
It is only then that we can draw strength
from the one in whom we are rooted
take time to grow and rise through the darkness
into the warm glow of your springtime
to blossom and flourish
bring colour and vitality into this world
your garden.
Thank you Father
for the seasons of our lives.

- Author Unknown