The little buds and tiny leaves on the trees in the Spring are just small enough to allow the sunlight to flood all around their surface. Bursting with virgin life, the forest barely hinders the beams from following their natural path through the tree. They flash across my windshield. Just like in winter when limbs are bare except for the residue of dark crispy brown blades of deterioration, you can see right through.
There are always buzzards crowding the edge of the roadway. Before being torn down and just before falling down, an old one room school house open to the elements had become their home and early in the morning they would be sitting in single file waiting to leave the blackboards for the cafeteria. Among them were the elders ready to lead off on the next field trip.
The alabaster dogwoods randomly dot the tangled labyrinth of bramble. The purple iris and buttercup decorate an orphaned homestead now shrouded by a thicket. The sinking pools left from Winter’s flooding is frequented by long-legged waterfowl fishing for stranded chow. Deer graze in herds like Angus in the pasture. Some have escaped their fences and glare me down as my truck passes them on the edge of disaster. Sadly some lie waiting for the sleepy occupants of the schoolhouse down the road.
A fat crow sits on a fence post daydreaming in the warmth of the sunrise. A snake has located a spot outside the shadows where it hides in the evening to warm itself. An owl clocks out from the night shift and quiets itself for a day of rest. Nocturnal critters evacuate into their hidden havens of safety. Morning songs fill the vacancy left by the orchestra of night bugs blaring their crescendos to forte blast. On a front porch we pass, an old hound settles down for its long nap and a cat tired from chasing mice snuggles into a cushion on an old rocking chair in the shade.
God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:11 & 24).
LORD, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth! (Psalm 8:1).
Stephen Williams