Rodney Dangerfield dopplegänger? |
Friday, March 1, 2024
Sunny Days
Thursday, February 1, 2024
February 14th Hoopla
Monday, January 1, 2024
Is Something Missing Here?
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Growing Up?
Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Sledding (Mis)Quotes by Marie
"I sled, therefore I am" --Rene Daycart
"Climb every mountain... Then sled down." --Oscar Hammerstone
"Sometimes a sled is just a sled." --Sigmund Fraud
"I came, I saw, I sledded." --Julius Freezer
Friday, October 1, 2021
Birds' Nests
"Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided. But because we cannot keep birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them build a nest in our hair." -- Martin Luther's Large Catechism, "Explanation of the Sixth Petition" ("Lead us not into temptation.")
Thursday, July 1, 2021
What's Your Path?
Some quotes to ponder as you hike this summer... or not 😉
"Only those who wonder will find new paths." --Norwegian Proverb
Saturday, May 1, 2021
Happy Mother's Day!
This month, I'm putting in part of a poem by English Jesuit poet, Gerard Manly Hopkins. I am not putting in on my other blog because, while it's got nature in it and expresses a form of Christianity, it has many specifically Roman Catholic ideas I do not agree with. Hope you enjoy it!
The May Magnificat*
May is Mary’s month, and I |
Muse at that and wonder why : |
Her feasts follow reason, |
Dated due to season—** |
Candlemas, Lady Day ; |
But the Lady Month, May,** |
Why fasten that upon her, |
With a feasting in her honour ? |
Flesh and fleece, fur and feather, |
Grass and greenworld all together ; |
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted |
Throstle*** above her nested |
Cluster of bugle blue*** eggs thin |
Forms and warms the life within ; |
And bird and blossom swell |
In sod or sheath or shell. |
All things rising, all things sizing |
Mary sees, sympathizing |
With that world of good |
Nature’s motherhood. |
Their magnifying of each its kind |
With delight calls to mind |
How she did in her stored |
Magnify the Lord. |
Well but there was more than this : |
Spring’s universal bliss |
Much, had much to say |
To offering Mary May. |
This ecstasy all through mothering earth |
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth |
To remember and exultation |
In God who was her salvation. --Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, 1844-1889 *The "Magnificat" is a name given to Mary's song from Luke chapter 1. She sang it when the angel told her she was going to become the mother of the Savior. It starts out, "My soul magnfies [makes great, praises] the Lord..." **There are other feast days honoring Mary. The Roman Catholic Church has set May aside as a month to honor her since the17th century. Pope Francis recently declared the Monday after Pentecost to be a feast day for her, since she seems to have been present at the coming of the Holy Spirit. In 2021, it falls on May 21st. A saints day for her that some Protestants also recognize is August 15th; Catholics take this as the commemoration of her being taken up alive into heaven. The Annunciation, marking of when the angel Gabriel came and announced her divine pregnancy is in March (nine months before Christmas). Candlemas is February 2nd and celebrates the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, coinciding with the end of forced ceremonial confinement that a Jewish woman had for 40 days after the birth of a child. He seems to be saying that nature gives many signs that this month honors Mary. Interestingly, though the US and many other countries celebrate Mother's Day in May, the UK celebrates it in late March. ***Throstle: old-fasioned word for "thrush" ****Many birds' eggs are blue. Blue was chosen as a symbolic color for Mary, representing faithfulness and purity. This is saying, as the eggs warm and nurture life inside, Mary did this as Jesus grew within her. |
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
The [Slave's] Complaint*
[written to be sung to the popular ballad, Admiral Hosier's Ghost]
Afric's coast I left forlorn;
To increase a stranger's treasures,
O'er the raging billows borne.
Men from England bought and sold me,
Paid my price in paltry gold;
But, though theirs they have enroll'd me,
Minds are never to be sold.
Still in thought as free as ever,
Me from my delights to sever,
Me to torture, me to task?
Fleecy locks, and black complexion
Cannot forfeit nature's claim;
Skins may differ, but affection
Dwells in white and black the same.
Why did all creating Nature
Make the plant for which we toil?
Sighs must fan it, tears must water,
Sweat of ours must dress the soil.
Think, ye masters, iron-hearted,
Lolling at your jovial boards;
Think how many backs have smarted
For the sweets your cane affords.
Is there, as ye sometimes tell us,
Is there one who reigns on high?
Has he bid you buy and sell us,
Speaking from his throne the sky?
Ask him, if your knotted scourges,
Matches, blood-extorting screws,
Are the means that duty urges
Agents of his will to use?
Hark! He answers!—Wild tornadoes,
Strewing yonder sea with wrecks;
Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,
Are the voice with which he speaks.
He, foreseeing what vexations
Afric's sons should undergo,
Fix'd their tyrants' habitations
Where his whirlwinds answer.**
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Wisdom from a Spiritual Source
The work of William Cowper (pronounced "Cowper"; 1731-1800) is featured on both my blogs this month. For more information, see the Christian Nature Poetry blog.
Below are some timeless quotes from Cowper. Source material provided when possible.
"Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour." --"The Timepiece", 1785; lines 606-607
"I am monarch of all I survey..." --Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Seldirk, 1782; line 1
"But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease." --William Cowper, John William Cunningham; “The works of William Cowper: Poems : with an essay on the genius and poetry of Cowper”, p.158 (1835)
"Absence of proof is not proof of absence."
"Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse, too." --“The Task: A Poem. In Six Books”, p.89 (1810)
"God made the country, and man made the town." --"The Sofa" line 749 (1785)
"Misery still delights to trace Its semblance in another's case." --“The Works of William Cowper: His Life, Letters, and Poems. Now First Completed by the Introduction of Cowper's Private Correspondence”, p.446
“If the world like it not, so much the worse for them.” --Letters
"A little sunshine is generally the prelude to a storm."
"A life of ease is a difficult pursuit." -- “Poems”, p.290 (1815)
"No one was ever scolded out of their sins."
"When nations perish in their sins, 'tis in the Church the leprosy begins." --“Poems of William Cowper, Esq”, p.57 (1824)
"The darkest day, if you live till tomorrow, will have past away."
"Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God." -- "The Winter Walk At Noon”
"England, with all thy faults, I love thee still..." --“The Life and Works of William Cowper: His life and letters by William Hayley" (1835)
"No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach."
Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons to love it, too. --“The Poetical Works of William Cowper”, p.143 (1854)
"A fool must be right now and then, by chance." --"Conversation" line 96 (1782)
“Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much. Wisdom is humble that he knows not more.”
“Satan trembles, when he sees the weakest Saint upon his knees.” --“Olney Hymn 29: Exhortation To Prayer”
"Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will." --"The Winter Walk At Noon”
"A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his Creator."
"We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works die too." “The Works of William Cowper: Comprising His Poems, Correspondence, and Translations. With a Life of the Author”, p.83 (1835).
Cowper: Seasonal Poem, Christian Nature Poetry Blog
Friday, July 5, 2019
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Walking, American Style
An American author for this Fourth of July, from one of his lesser-known works:
"He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river... No wealth can buy the requisite leisure freedom, and independence which are capital in this profession... You must be born into the family of Walkers... the walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called... but is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day... "
---Henry David Thoreau in "Walking", from the Atlantic Monthly, 1862.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
A Very Grand Canyon
There may be larger canyons around the world, but ours is very grand. The kids & I recently went to the less-travelled North Rim, which is higher in elevation.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
Friday, December 13, 2013
O Tannenbaum: New Translation
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, How steadfast are your branches! Your boughs are green in summer's clime And through the snows of wintertime. O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, How steadfast are your branches! O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, Your boughs can teach a lesson That constant faith and hope sublime Lend strength and comfort through all time. O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, Your boughs can teach a lesson. --More direct translation from the German (and more meaningful) | |