Equinox Thoughts

 
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by Denny

            This morning I trekked beyond the cabin with my bucket of corn.  The little herd of deer that make an appearance each morning so we might enjoy breakfast together watched me.  No flapjacks and sausage for them.  They are delighted with corn on the cob, served up cold and on the ground.  As I approach they skip and jump with seeming delight, or do they do that just because they can?  Some jump over the fence, some juke under.  They flee just beyond spitting distance and wait, inquisitively watching while I serve up breakfast.  Tails wag and they come “skipperty-hopping” when I turn my back and walk toward the house.

            As morning unfolds, snow is falling gently and there is a slight breeze which reminds me that today has its feet in the hard winter and its head in the delight of a new birth of spring.  Yes, the robins are back, the snow has receded and the geese are flying in the right direction.  I am painfully aware, though, that the first snowdrop hasn’t popped up yet, and despite finding several wonderfully warm, moist road banks yesterday, there was no evidence yet of coltsfoot. 

Denny at Tara, an ancient Irish site

            It is no wonder the ancient Irish looked to the sun.  Am I so different than they?  Perhaps I am.  I am come back to a warm house and with the flick of a switch I will have light.  With the turn of a knob I can make fire.  Their lives were not quite so comfortable.  I am thinking of all of those massive stones they collected from all parts of the Emerald Isle.  They sorted and arranged them into structures to celebrate the season.  My goals for today are not quite so lofty.  My day will be spent here on the mountain.  I am looking for the sun just as they were, but it is only a bright white orb that peeks out from behind the clouds every now and then.  The ancient Irish looked for the sun to return, but they knew that if it didn’t, it may be there tomorrow.  There is evidence it is there and, “Hope springs eternal,” three words that go together quite nicely I think, and I am reminded,

            The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith,

            is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.

            It’s our handle on what we can’t see.  The act of faith is what

            distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. 

                  By faith we see the world called into existence by God’s word,

            what we see created by what we don’t see.

                                                                                    Heb. 11    Peterson

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