Susan's Thursday Note May 9, 2019
Morning light. Spring Rains. Quotes on Spring. Grief.
Good morning! The sunlight is trying to hit the trees this morning. Winds so strong and dark clouds from the night trying to not lose their grip to the winds and the sun. Spring seems to have made her full entrance this week in my little world. Green carpets are being delivered to the fields. Orioles matching the oranges they are feeding off of. Yellow wings of the finches making sure I’m not standing too closely. Blossoms giving their gifts of beautiful spring new life and their ability to show depth of love of past lives at the graveyards. Below is a mixture of poems and quotes on this beauty. Beauty of spring. Beauty of the eternal gift of morning. Of light. Again, words that help us keep our eternal perspective. I can only imagine the flowers on windowsills and garden paths from centuries ago as these writers took the time to write. I can only imagine the flowers that I will be handed in a charming vase to put on my doorstep in heaven. Flowers. Sunshine. Rain. Morning. All words that come with a new baby and words that are at the graves. Beautiful words. My angel of dawn this morning handing me a bouquet for grief and for life. All in the same bouquet.
“Some will tell you crocuses are heralds true of spring. Others say that tulip showing buds are just the thing. Point to peonies, say when magnolia blossoms show. I look forward to the sight of other flowers though. Cuultivate your roses, grow your orchids in the dark. Plant your posies row on row and stink up the whole park. The flower that’s my favorite kind is found throughout the land. A wilting, yellow dandelion, clutched in a grubby hand.” (Larry Tilander)
“Up at dawn, the dewy freshness of the hour, the morning rapture of the birds, the daily miracle of sunrise, set her heart in tune, and gave her Nature’s most healing balm.” (Louisa May Alcott)
“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”…”It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…” (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
“Earth teach me to forget myself as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me resignation as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me courage as the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring.” (William Alexander)
“The air is like a butterfly with frail blue wings. The happy earth looks at the sky and sings.” (Joyce Kilmer 1886-1918)
“The town was glad with morning light; places that had shown ugly and distrustful all night long, now wore a smile; and sparkling sunbeams dancing on chamber windows, and twinkling through blind and curtain before sleepers’ eyes, shed light even into dreams, and chased away the shadows of the night.” (Charles Dickens)
“’Tis like the birthday of the world, when earth was born in bloom; The light is made of many dyes, The air is all perfume: There’s crimson buds, and white and blue, The very rainbow showers Have turned to blossoms where they fell, and Sown the earth with flowers.” (Thomas Hood 1799-1845)
“The difference between rising at five and seven o’clock in the morning, for forty years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a man’s life.” (Doddridge)
“He is like the light of morning at sunrise, like a morning without clouds, like the gleaming of the sun on new grass after rain.” (NLT 2 Samuel 23:4 on a righteous ruler)
“Poetry is the silence and speech between a wet struggling root of a flower and a sunlit blossom of that flower.” (Carl Sandburg)
“The fields are snowbound no longer; There are little blue lakes and flags of tenderest green. The snow has been caught up into the sky – So many white clouds – and the blue of the sky is cold. Now the sun walks in the forest, He touches the bows and stems with his golden fingers; They shiver, and wake from slumber. Over the barren braches he shakes his yellow curls. Yet is the forest full of the sound of tears…A wind dances over the fields. Shrill and clear the sound of her waking laughter, Yet the little blue lakes tremble and the flags of tenderest green bend and quiver.” (Katherine Mansfield)
“It is in the early morning hour that the unseen is seen, and that far-off beauty and glory, vanquishing all their vagueness, move down upon us till they stand clear as crystal close over against the soul.” (Susan Smiley)
“Be like a flower and turn your face to the sun.” (Kahlil Gibran)
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” (Marcus Aurelius)
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” (Rumi)
“Angels in the early morning may be seen the dews among.
Stooping, plucking, smiling, flying.
Do the buds to them belong?” (Emily Dickinson)
“Life is too short,” she panicked, “I want more.” He nodded slowly, “Wake up earlier.” (Dr. Sun Wolf)
Now outside my window the day arrives. No longer dawn. Beautiful dark shadows surrounded by glistening grass. The little insects in the shadow have no idea that only a few inches away there is bright sunlight. Can they lift their little eyes and see the distance? We can see the entire scene and realize their darkness will leave soon. Will they see that hope? Will they have an older insect tell them that sunshine is so close. Always coming eventually? Little grubby hands will be holding smashed flowers as their treasures for us today. Winds dance over our fields. Angels in the early morning. Our constant friends. Bringing with them raindrops, sunshine, moments, life. Flowers making our graveyards beautiful. Showing the depths of our love and our grief. Showing the beauty of eternity. Showing hope. Bouquets held by our angels at our doors this morning. Bouquets bringing life and bouquets as gifts at the end of life. Flowers that were all rained upon by raindrops from heaven. Showing us how quickly this life will go before we get the beautiful life we can only imagine that those whose flowers are honoring already get to experience. Can you imagine the birdsongs and the flowers they are seeing in heaven? I can only imagine. I will wait, but I want to always look forward to the moment of seeing God’s eyes, touching His hands, and having a fresh bouquet handed to me by those I miss as they greet me with a little bird on the bouquet. Susan
Latin for this week:
aurora musis amica – Dawn is a friend of the muses.
mane – morning light
aurora – dawn
oriens – east, rising, morning, dawn
dilucesco – become light, dawn, begin to shine clearly
flos – flower, bouquet, blossom
(In French the term aubade means a poem or song welcoming or lamenting dawn.)