If it were only the purple brilliance of the newly blooming periwinkle flowers I would be satisfied, but it is also the shimmering green foliage of the boxwoods, glistening with dew in the morning crispness. These things together are magnificent.
It is the arching branch of the apple tree, reaching, and bowing low over the freshly mown grass. And the morning sunlight, still low in the sky, casting a warm glow through the tree and across the grass, where a lively robin can be seen dancing gently, and bowing quickly over its morning meal, saying a brief prayer before eating a worm.
Veronica cascades over a broken-down wall; and sweet Daphne fragrance drifts upon the breeze, intermingled with…is it viburnum? Osmanthus? Yes. All the floral world is alive now and calling to bees and birds to pollinate.
I walk with my dog, slowly, aimlessly, both of us contentedly; neither of us is leashed to anything. My mind is free to wander, and he is enthralled by the base of every tree. With little puffs of warm air he sniffs everything, missing nothing, moving randomly, joyously, from one tree to the next; he is like a tiny steam train, puffing and snorting as he goes, then coming to rest contentedly into the station.—abiding in pleasured stillness, with his head and nose buried deep within worlds unknown to me.
Standing in a forest of flowering currants, surrounded by sword ferns, with bird calls filling the air; all these things working together for the good of man and of beast. We are dwelling, together in an abundance of beauty.
*
Time, like the snow falling, brings a hush in its wake, covering the past in a soft blanket of silence. The sun shines upon us, melting our hearts like the spring thaw, and awakening our consciousness to the bright future unfurling around and within us.
~FS

Dear Francis,
Thank you for this essay.
All my life, I have enjoyed the beauty in nature. The shapes and colors of ordinary plants, birds, stones, and shells show that the Creator thought of everything! It is not a coincidence that a hummingbird’s bill is the perfect length and size to draw the nectar from a fuchsia blossom. God made the bird and the flower to live together.
I have sliced into hundreds of cabbages since I first started cooking in 1960. I still marvel at the wave patterns formed by the ivory and green or purple leaves. Imagine a smooth length of silk, patterned in the colors and shapes of a cross-section of purple cabbage. That would be something fit for Sophia Loren!
Love, Theresa
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Thank you Theresa. Yes, the pattern in a cabbage is very beautiful. I agree! Thanks for your comments!
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