In the garden
Tulips grow –
straight and golden
In a row.
Each one holds its
Empty cup –
Drinking rain and
Sunshine up.
~V. W. Lachicotte

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. ~Psalm 16:5   ✝

The land is awakening indeed, and as of today the lusty March winds have yawned half the month awake.  The arrival of the vernal equinox is only 5 days away, and what it brings in the following weeks and months will add other levels to the enormous sense of the sacredness in my garden.  There are simply no words to explain how the scents and sights of my yard in the springtime nurture my spirit or how palpable the feeling that God is near becomes within its confines.  Since recent months have unveiled loss of life and/or illness for dear friends, I desperately need these glimpses of Eden to remind me that God is still on the throne, He does perform miracles, and that now, as always, goodness is at the very core of Creation.  Man may have fallen on that fateful day in Eden, but nothing can stop the good in what the Lord declared, made, and ordained.

Awake, north wind, and come, south wind!  Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere.  Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.  ~Song of Solomon 4:16

On the fifth day of Creation, all across the sky,
God created brilliant creatures that He allowed to fly.
He gave them wings, beaks, feathers, and claws,
And He praised as “good” all that He saw.
~Christine Lamke, 4th grade teacher

Springtime, more than any other time of year, is a banquet for all the senses.  More than that it is a season in which humanity is bombarded with “expressions of God’s essence.”  To discover this all one has to do is venture in and spend time within a garden’s walls, and then he/she can’t help but notice that the roots therein reach deep down into the mystery of God’s life and bring His glory to the surface.

As fortune would have it, we who live in this area are blessed with early springtimes.  As a result the birds begin busily bringing in bits of grass and leaves to build new nests several weeks in advance of the vernal equinox.  Also since the hum of a small faction of bees is heard fairly early, we know it won’t be long before more of them as well as creatures of “nest, pond, or tree,” will be dining on the garden’s swelling numbers of tasty tidbits such as “insects, fruit, pollen, and seeds.”  The perks for me are watching this drama start to unfold as early as January or February and then in March and April being blessed with a host of “brilliant creatures” who “float, hover, swoop, soar, or fly” to the lovely silence of growing things in my garden.

And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  ~Exodus 33:19  ✝

The last days of winter are here, and we are being blessed with birdsong–“the ecstasy of a lark in the sky; the music of a water-thrush when the sun comes out; the bell of a cuckoo that keeps ringing.”  So we ask the Source of all blessings to help us remember to join in with the songbirds and sing a song of gratitude for all the world to hear.

Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.  ~Song of Songs 2:12

Winston Churchill was born into a family with a history of mental illness, and he too suffered repeated bouts of depression and suspected bipolar disease.  Churchill’s name for his depression was the “Black Dog.”  Although not mentally ill, I suffer, like many, with dark moments once in a while, and so, after watching a movie about Churchill years ago, I came to call my struggles in the “dark” as rounds with the “black dog.”  As it turned out my daughter happened to call “at the meltdown moment” in yesterday’s most recent scuffle with the “black dog.”  She reasoned me back to a place in the light by reminding me that I had once told her that people choose to be part of darkness or a part of the light.  As God’s children we are called to be people who bring His light into a fallen world where the forces of darkness run rampant.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”   ~John 8:12

Winter is a season often disdained because it gives the appearance of death and decay on an almost overwhelming scale.  But yearly we have proof that it’s nothing more than a season of dormancy and resting.  Old Man Winter, however, is such a master at a deception he tricks some into believing that all may be lost.  But if we watch the seasons and trust the promises of God, we know that trees hold summer’s secret, and that secret is one of light and life.  The branches of this tree may be bare and the nest empty, but the sight, rather than lending a feeling of despair, offers me a sense of hope.  For millions of years the song of many leaves have returned to trees and the sweet chirping of their winged tenants have rung from nests tucked safely in their hearts.  Some things do perish in winter, but many leave behind a seed that will bring more of their species to fruition.  Others just sort of shrink into the ground or their woodiness or secret chambers beneath the surface of the soil to be held in safety until days lengthen and the sun warms them back to life.

The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.  ~Genesis 1:12

For all areas of the earth where, as there is here and in other parts of the US, a need for rain, I pray the Lord bless our parched lands with good amounts of rainfall this spring.  Heavens hears His children when their voices come together.  Let it be so.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, . . .   ~Deuteronomy 11:14

The unfolding of the visible, primordial realities of tide and dawn have “been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years,” and they never fail to flood my being with an enormous sense of awe, wonder, and reverence.  So intense are my experiences on a beach that it feels like fresh touches of heaven come in on the rushing waves and give voice to sacred melodies emanating from deep within my heart and the waters that spread out before me.

God called the dry land “earth,” and He called the gathering of the water “seas.” And God saw that it was good.  ~Genesis 1:10

All Nature seems at work.  Slugs leave their lairs,
the bees are stirring, birds are on the wing,
and Winter slumbering in the open air,
wears on his smiling face a dream of spring.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The sanctuary below earth and sky is throwing open its doors, doors once “frozen” in bondage, and the introit to springtime’s metaphorical “high mass” is beginning.  Presiding currently over the opening ceremonies are the avian high priests, the cardinals, but with the arrival of the vernal equinox on March 20th, other clergy will appear to perform the holiest of sacraments upon earth’s ancient altars.

The vernal equinox may be 3 weeks away, but with the emergence of each new leaf and bud and bird Creation’s heart is beating stronger and stronger.  Spring’s early chants echo close to the ground, and as they reverberate near branch and cane, they tell me that the rest of spring’s holy voices will join in soon.  When they do their arias will reach crescendos that climb garden walls and charge over hedgerows.  And these ever increasing waves of spring’s sweet sounds will cross the land, discernible to some extent even in the mighty cement jungles of commerce, until summer draws near and spring’s benedictions and blessings are snuffed out by summer’s ever-increasing waves of heat.

Within the quiet, eternal rhythms of God’s heart one finds wholeness, harmony, and healing for the brokenness that transpires in the maelstrom of human madness and the exhaustion of today’s “cultural currents.”  Through the clouds of modern man’s spiritual and ecological pollution, the light that was in the beginning breaks brilliantly every spring as the sounds of the eternal emerge triumphantly from winter’s silence teaching the listener to reverence not only the Creator but all that He has made including his/her own existence.

You set all the boundaries of the earth; You made summer and winter.  ~Psalm 74:17