..and for all this, nature is never spent..

 

 

A Louisiana Heron rests on floating branches, its
reflected beauty lit by the descending sun in
a scene of utter tranquility.

♦

Fitting for the dying light of a Sunday, this late day image of a Louisiana Heron inspires a sense of peace and rightness in the world. Better even than a glass of wine to take the edge off the nagging concerns of life. For some reason when preparing to post this image I was impelled to include the poem, God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins with it.  A kind friend once introduced me to the poem and ever since a copy has resided via magnets on my refrigerator. It reminds me there are things greater and grander than any toil or worry of mine and that maybe really God’s Grandeur cannot be spent but rather will keep and uphold us until our own light goes out.

 

God’s Grandeur

 

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

    And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

◊

And for all this, nature is never spent;

    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

♦

 

Judy

~ by Judy on October 28, 2018.