Holiness at Dawn

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter our daily lives?

~ E.M. Forster

Considering the beauty that’s available in nature at sunrise, I always wonder why there aren’t crowds of people outdoors at this time of day.  Perhaps it is because sunrise happens every day that it is so easily taken for granted.

Regardless of the vista, the sight is always uniquely splendid and a marvel to behold.  In the salt marsh, the reflection of sky in water multiplies the effect of the streaks of warm colors just before dawn.  Silhouettes of herons stand quietly before the wonder that is taking place.  These moments of the day seem more sacred than any others that will follow.

Even on mornings when the sky is brightly painted, it’s difficult to see everything clearly.  This factor brings to sunrise the element of mystery.  If everything was seen in a brighter light, it would be somehow less wonderful and holy.

At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear. It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us. You can love completely without complete understanding.

~ Norman Maclean from A River Runs Through It

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Signs of Innocence

Ragged Robin flowers grow wild in the yard.  They just popped up a few summers ago and I’ve been mowing around them ever since.  They’re too pretty to cut down.

I used to mow around the Oxeye daisies too but now restrict their growth to mostly a large circular bed in one corner of the yard.  Once they’re done blooming, I mow the area flat.

Wild flowers require no special care.  They grow where God has planted them (or I’ve transplanted them) and need no extra watering beyond what rains down.  They’re not as prone to blight and insect damage as introduced species seem to be, and the slugs don’t have much of an apetite for them.

Unfortunately, these plants are often seen as weeds and tend to be either tolerated or eradicated with great effort from city lawns.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

~ William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Whether or not a plant is considered a weed is a matter of perception.  Poet William Blake believed that ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.’  Signs of innocence are close at hand but it’s up to us to open our eyes, take notice and try to understand them.  ’Everything that lives is holy’ and can bring us in touch with that which is infinite.  What positive things might happen today if we were willing to abandon our pre-conceived, limited notions of beauty and abundance?

Nature in its many forms possesses qualities that can connect us to this holy state.  From sandpipers on the ocean’s shore to doves on city streets, these signs of innocence are ready to give us a glimpse of the infinite and the eternal, if only we would adjust our focus.

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