“Life has loveliness to sell.   All beautiful and splendid things, Blue waves whitened on a cliff, Soaring fire that sways and sings, And children’s faces looking up Holding wonder in a cup.”

                    Sara Teasdale.  (copied from a Celestal Seasoning Green Tea box..acg)

Chalet L’Abri, April, 2005….Measuring My Days...acg          

       Life does indeed have loveliness to sell, especially on a splendid April day here on the eastern slopes of the Massanutten, albeit free for all takers like myself who let these moments penetrate and permeate their souls.   A quote from Eugenia Price’s book, What Really Matters, captured my thoughts for the Lenten season as Palm Sunday and Easter came early this year.   “What really matters”, she wrote, “is God’s dependable love.”  We see it most clearly on a glorious spring day such as this when daffodils and forsythia light up my world, when the near-distant grandeur of the Blue Ridge  mountains looms on the eastern horizon, and the wind gently whispers a sibilant song.   April here at Piney Mountain Acres fairly screams the sentiment that life goes on as tombs are opened and all life rises from a long winter’s nap.  All elements of Creation are conspiring to announce once again the Resurrection. 

Not too long ago a resident groundhog in my back woods wobbled through the brush.  Soon thereafter, I counted eight deer meandering in the opposite direction.  A family of six squirrels, five of which are beguiling infants, nowadays shows up often on my front lawn for breakfast.  More than once in recent days squadrons of geese have made their spring flyovers, headed northwest.  Raking the front slopes, I discovered miniature blooms of white Whitlow grass and blue creeping ivy, insisting on making their presence known.  A Baltimore oriole visited my feeder a few days ago, a rare stopover.  A pair of doves comes often, cooing their spring love for one another.  With these and other miracles of new life happening all around me, I summons my Audubon guidebooks for wildflowers, birds and animals, eager and receptive to see, hear, touch, learn and experience all this profusion of wondrous creation, gifts from this dependable and loving Father of us all. 

“Love all God's creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If you love each thing you will pierce the mystery of God in all, and when you perceive this, you will from then on grow  every day to a fuller understanding of it,  until you come at last to love the whole world  with a love that will then be all-embracing love.”  - Fyodor Dostoevsky