As I write this post it is still dark. According to the forecast, it will remain dark throughout the day (throughout the week). The rains are falling hard and fast.
This is the perfect storm for feeling down, for the formation of a frown, for seeing life in a dark light.
For those of us who know the effect of dark on our solar-powered heart, we know that like nourishing food and physical activity, we need to seek the light in whatever form we can find.
And it often doesn’t take much light to fight off the dark.
I awoke and saw the gorgeous image (above) on my computer and heard the words of a hymn written over one hundred years ago, by Folliott S. Pierpoint as he gazed on the Avon River and the surrounding countryside. Each verse something of creation that the writer was able to see God’s fingerprint in and the short refrain an acknowledgement of that creation, the creator and personal thanksgiving.
Focusing on the beauty in the storms, that beauty which mirrors the Creator, can be the oxygen one needs in the midst of the dark.
For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies.
Refrain:
Christ, our Lord, to you we raise
this, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the wonder of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale and tree and flower,
sun and moon and stars of light, [Refrain ]
For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth, and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild, [Refrain]
For yourself, best gift divine,
to the world so freely given,
agent of God’s grand design:
peace on earth and joy in heaven. [Refrain]
(because I will always hear this song sung this way in my heart …)
itsawonderfilledlife 