Ann and Zinnias
Seed catalogs begin arriving in January. I love looking at them. My sister calls them pornography for gardeners. Everything looks so beautiful. The fruits and vegetables look delicious. I know what I’m going to get when seeds arrive: tiny possibilities. We start many of them in the greenhouse and then transplant them into larger containers if they get too big before it is time to put them in the ground. It’s fun to get a head start on spring.
But somehow it seems different when I order flower plants. I think catalogs should have pictures of what they actually are going to send you. The pictures of the beautiful flowers are hard to resist. But when the single stems with a few roots arrive in the mail it’s hard to believe that they will turn into beautiful flowers. I don’t think those 24 little stems that arrived this week will lushly cover the ground this year.
A couple of years ago I ordered strawberry plants. The package was very small. But last year we did enjoy great strawberries and this year the growth is so thick I’m sharing the plants with other people and thinning out our patch.
UPS just arrived with another small package. Can’t wait to see what is in it.
If you notice cattle as you speed down the highway,
they seem to move slowly,
chewing their way across the prairie
or wheat field.
Sometimes they’re full
and just sit,
together.
Sometimes they stand in the shade,
together.
Only in a snow storm
as they hurry to the treeline,
or when the hay is delivered
do you see them trot with any kind of speed.
But when they are born,
while they still get their nourishment from Mom,
and are free to play,
they are quite agile and energetic.
While Moms graze closeby,
the young ones
run across the pasture,
kick back their heels,
chase each other,
push on each other
head to head.
Not sure why this sight
brings such joy.
But I’m glad it still does.
Oklahoma Sky Early This Week -
Heralding a Thunderstorm
The great Irish teacher John Scotus Eriugena taught that God speaks to us through two books. One is the little book he says, the book of scripture, physically little. The other is the big book, the book of creation, vast as the universe. Just as God speaks to us through the words of scripture, so God speaks to us through the elements of creation. The cosmos is like a living sacred text that we can learn to read and interpret. Just as we prayerfully ponder the words of the Bible in Christian practice, and as other traditions study their sacred texts, so we are invited to listen to the life of creation as an ongoing, living utterance of God.
– J. Philip Newell
Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation
