I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful – an endless prospect of magic and wonder. ~ Ansel Adams
wonder
Today’s Poem: A Cowboy’s Prayer by Badger Clark Jr.
A Cowboy’s Prayer
Badger Clark Jr.
Oh Lord, I’ve never lived where churches grow.
I love creation better as it stood
That day You finished it so long ago
And looked upon Your work and called it good.
I know that others find You in the light
That’s sifted down through tinted window panes,
And yet I seem to feel You near tonight
In this dim, quiet starlight on the plains.
I thank You, Lord, that I am placed so well,
That You have made my freedom so complete;
That I’m no slave of whistle, clock or bell,
Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street.
Just let me live my life as I’ve begun
And give me work that’s open to the sky;
Make me a pardner of the wind and sun,
And I won’t ask a life that’s soft or high.
Let me be easy on the man that’s down;
Let me be square and generous with all.
I’m careless sometimes, Lord, when I’m in town,
But never let ’em say I’m mean or small!
Make me as big and open as the plains,
As honest as the hawse between my knees,
Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains,
Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze!
Forgive me, Lord, if sometimes I forget.
You know about the reasons that are hid.
You understand the things that gall and fret;
You know me better than my mother did.
Just keep an eye on all that’s done and said
And right me, sometimes, when I turn aside,
And guide me on the long, dim, trail ahead
That stretches upward toward the Great Divide.
Today’s Poem: Sure on This Shining Night by James Agee
Sure on This Shining Night
James Agee
Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night I weep for wonder wand’ring far
alone
Of shadows on the stars.
Today’s Poem: On Journey by Sakutaro Hagiwara
On Journey
Sakutaro Hagiwara
I’d like to be off to France,
But France is so frightfully far,
At the least though, I’ll pick out a brand new suit,
And mount on a trip carefree.
When the train starts up the overpass,
I’ll lean on the azure window
And think happy thoughts alone,
This May day at dawn,
Leaving it all to the new-grass-sprouting heart.
God’s World: A Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
God’s World
Edna St. Vincent Millay
O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!
Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart,—Lord, I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me,—let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.
Today’s Inspiring Quote by Norman Vincent Peale, Enjoy the Wonder of Christmas
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale
The Early Morning, A Poem by Hilaire Belloc
The Early Morning by Hilaire Belloc
The moon on the one hand, the dawn on the other:
The moon is my sister, the dawn is my brother.
The moon on my left and the dawn on my right.
My brother, good morning: my sister, good night.
Thinking Out Loud: Experiencing Moments of Grace
Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Boris Pasternack’s work, Dr. Zhivago.
“For a moment she rediscovered the purpose of life. She was here on earth to grasp the meaning of its wild enchantment and to call each thing by its right name.”
Note: Moments of clarity are few. They come to us unannounced. In those moments we know as we were created to know. I call them moments of grace. In these moments I know that I am part of something vast, wonderful, overflowing with an abundance of love. I want to remain in those moments, nothing else matters. The moments leave. They leave me recharged, filled with the Spirit, to move forward with a heart overflowing with hope and love.
“Ignorant Before The Heavens Of My Life” Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke
Ignorant Before The Heavens Of My Life by Rainer Maria Rilke
Ignorant before the heavens of my life,
I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness
of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still.
As if I didn’t exist. Do I have any
share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with
their pure effect? Does my blood’s ebb and flow
change with their changes? Let me put aside
every desire, every relationship
except this one, so that my heart grows used to
its farthest spaces. Better that it live
fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than
as if protected, soothed by what is near.
