I spent a few minutes resting on the back patio this afternoon, time to de-stress … time to breathe … time to absorb the birds calling to their friends, the trees gently holding forth their branches to the sunlight, the breeze dancing lightly around my chair, the creek tumbling along the rocks. Nature called me forth from myself … from the busy-ness of the day … from my worrisome thoughts … and led me to the place of rest.
As a fond mother, when the day is o’er,
Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
Half willing, half reluctant to be led,
And leave his broken playthings on the floor,
Still gazing at them through the open door,
Nor wholly reassured and comforted
By promises of others in their stead,
Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;
So Nature deals with us, and takes away
Our playthings one by one, and by the hand
Leads us to rest so gently, that we go
Scarce knowing if we wished to go or stay,
Being too full of sleep to understand
How far the unknown transcends the what we know.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I’m reminded of the second stanza to the old hymn … Great is Thy Faithfulness …
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
“We may have to learn again the mystery of the garden: how its external characteristics model the heart itself, and how the soul is a garden enclosed, our own perpetual paradise where we can be refreshed and restored.” ~ Thomas Moore
