Monday, April 23, 2012

my favourite things / a garment of praise


standing there
gazing up

I saw the tree for the first time

not that I have never seen it before

I walk by it each day
perhaps
a dozen times

I watch the woodpecker family
dance and flit between its maze

the juncos
hummers
robins
chickadees
all find refuge



I pick up its fallen branches
after a storm

I plant a garden
beneath
its boughs

I see laughing children
collecting buckets of rocks
and making daisy chains
in the cool shade

I see its reflection
in the summer puddles

I collect its fallen leaves
come Autumn

I gaze upon it with the first snows
and against clear blue skies
throughout each season

I can still see a young boy
high in its limbs
while I wrestle joyously
with dog Sunshine
below in the big tree's shade
I marvel how a boy
can be so fearless
so high
he hangs upside down
and swings
he tells us a story
and laughs
he rests like a cat on a limb
or a bird perched
I think I can catch him
if he falls
but
he wriggles down
easy as a squirrel

It is the same tree
Opa said blocked his view
of the Northern sky
so...clad still in ski boots
and the young lad to hold the ladder
he climbed high
with chain saw
to delimb the tree
also removing Jedaiah's stepping stones
for future climbing

we don't always understand
the consequence of our actions

this young boy
now skydives
he needs no limbs

still the Old Cottonwood stands

and at twilight
I really see it for the first time

bursting forth with spring buds
ripened but still sealed
sap running through its veins
after winter's rest
bringing elasticity to
its many boughs
reaching
curving graceful
ever upwards

I also raise my arms
to the One worthy
my limbs and heart
raised high
to the true and
Exalted One

we stand together
in worship
to the Holy One
a tree
and little me
twilight
silhouetting us
in a soft
and sleepy sky

I learn each bend in her banches
how they grow strong from the trunk
and stretch elastic
and alway to the sun
always to the Son
my heart longing to be so beautiful
as this ancient tree before me
scars healed over
life flowing to all corners
nourishment replenished
new growth
graceful
His grace flowing

the twilight lets me see its frame
I can't take my eyes away


one star Eduardo sees

I glance
at the one lone star
gracing the evening sky
then return
to this tree





I think I have never seen it before
so lovely

It is praising God
Arms lifted
my heart
lifted

we are dressed
in a garment of praise

my favourite things
















27 comments:

  1. I think this may just be my all time favourite . . . at least so far. Love, love, love it.
    "Scars healed over
    life flowing to all corners
    nourishment replenished" . . . some of my favourite lines.
    So blessed by your writing, Susan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really miss you Andrea Dawn... walking through the village now that Spring is budding and always I see you at a little village church bringing to life the music from an old piano... I really miss you my friend. So glad for your sweet friendship.

      Delete
  2. I keep saying this~you are an amazing writer. This is so lovely. I was there, with you.
    ~Debra

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debra... I need to meet this amazing woman who sees and captures such beauty through a camera lense. So glad to have you visit here! I love my walks through your blog!

      Delete
  3. Susan, oh, my. am i ever glad you chose to come visit little me so that i could read *this*, friend. THIS is--im speechless--no words. what to call it? thrilling, stunning, gorgeous, full of promise and hope--it. literally.made.me.catch.my breath. you need to sumbit this all over the place if you havent yet--just my humble suggestion. but im content to just read. how you inter-wove creation nature with creation being with *Creator*--this needs to happen more. too often i just see creation nature and *creation being* as one....but this, *this* truly awakened and blessed my soul.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am pretty shy to share... so I just write...
      thank you for your kind words Nacole! We have such a wonderful God I just can't hold it in!

      Delete
  4. I have no words! I am speechless. "a tree and little me." I loved that and felt that smallness within myself. This is just beautiful, and I can just say "ditto" to all that Nacole has said. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cora, you dear! You found the tree and little me... :)

      Delete
  5. wow... such a gorgeous write friend. never has a tree been so honored...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Emily... praise for the spirit of heaviness... I find God so faithful to lift my heart to Him. May we always exalt Him.
      hugs dear friend! This big tree is a daily inspiration...

      Delete
  6. And so now your analytical friend comes to comment:

    This made me think of the new Subaru commercial where the young man who owns it thinks back over all the events during the 200,000 miles he owned it. I LOVE that commercial.

    You talk about the tree in the same way. Only your memories can only slice through a bit of the tree's timeline for it is so old and big and lived through so many things you did not see and will not see in the future for it will go on. Your grandchildren will perhaps continue the story...

    This is so big. It testifies to the inconceivable hugeness of our God. I go into the day with Him by my side! Whoa!
    Dawn

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dawn, now you will have me looking for the Subaru Commercial :)
      Just like the fire that swept through my dad's sawmill two nights ago, this tree was also witness to a fire that swept through a sawmill on this land 55 years ago which left a few trees standing, some of which the pine beetle killed a few years ago and then others like this one, that hold themselves up in humble thankfulness to the Author of life, Who allows them to be shelter and blessing to all the life nearby... such are God's good gifts to us. Indeed our God is huge and His mercies everlasting...

      Delete
    2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH8VAzSgRrs

      the Subaru Commercial...Love

      Delete
  7. Bee-YOU-tiful!! The picture speaks all by itself, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it is a loverly tree indeed... we are pretty good friends

      Delete
  8. Lovely, Susan !!

    I like the idea of picking up fallen branches after a storm.
    Thanks for sharing and thanks for the lovely comments too :-)

    Blessings
    Ann

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .... Or being picked up after a storm. ;)

      I like being carried by Him!

      Delete
    2. anad isn't He so good to pick us up after each storm....

      Delete
  9. Your words flow together so beautifully....i got caught up in each line.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dee thank you for coming and seeing here with me... sometimes I feel I am too blessed, too filled with moments of God's glory... Sharing the overflowing is always so much better :)

      Delete
  10. Sweet faith filled fisher lady . . .you see Him and help us see Him, everywhere. This made me cry, and I can't tell you why, but maybe you just understand. :) I always think about those trees, when they lose their leaves and how like them I want to be before Him. Exposed. Reaching up. No fancy covering on who I am.
    Thank you for my time of worship to Him here, for that's what your poems lead me to. God bless you! love and prayers! deb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exposed. Reaching up. No fancy covering on who I am....Deb it is that exactly and I think that is why I loved it so! This tree is so filled with life about to burst; all His doing. Spring is bursting with so much life... so glad we can share it together in some small but amazing ways!

      Delete
  11. Oh Susan, this is exquisitely beautiful. I have a tree that I love just outside my bedroom window. It is such a picture of strength and beauty that it always, always restores me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This part reminds me of your last post my dear Rambling Tart,
      scars healed over
      life flowing to all corners
      nourishment replenished
      new growth
      graceful
      His grace flowing

      I thank God how he brings beauty and healing into our lives...Blessings dear friend...thankful for our trees that grace our view each day.

      Delete
  12. Beautiful. You have a real way with words...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Simply beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete