A magical day. Today was a magical day. I took my hearty cough and cold out for a walk with the dog. Plans made for a shortish long walk, then bumped into a neighbor I haven’t yet met, talked about dogs and Buddhism and agreed we’d get together soon when Jake whined with boredom and insisted we continue on.
Then we walked and walked and walked some more, and walked further along the creek than we ever have, down under the main road, discovering that that bridge is painted an improbable, cheery/cherry red, and then stumbled across a pathway that leads down to the water… and which, it turns out, is actually a park, The Hudson Highlands State Park. (I live in the Hudson Highlands, just south of the Hudson Valley, though most refer to this area as the Hudson Valley, too.)
And we found sheer, gorgeous, sparkling majesty. It was like standing in a cathedral. I bowed my head. I prayed. I thanked the guiding hand who made this world. And I wept a tear or three for the wondrous joy of glory. And the gift of living to experience it.
This being 2014, I also posted quite a few photos on Instagram, and this video.
Which prompted a beautiful Tweet from Lindsey: ” ‘The world is charged with the grandeur of God.’ Hopkins is always in my head at times like that.’ ”
And so, now, forever, will that be true for me, too. And now maybe you, too, as well, dear reader.
The Grandeur of God, Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844-1889
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.
Perfect.
I have loved being here the past three days. This really is a wonderful place to be, to meet you all, and to share together wonder and more. I start back to work tomorrow, but I am going to try to create an at-least-weekly habit of spending a few minutes here each morning, even if just to share someone else’s words, as I did today.
Peace!