Dear Reader:

Brooke gave me this garden statute after Rutledge and Jakie came along…she said that the boys needed to be represented in the garden too.

The first time I looked at this adorable little boy with the half-smile on his face I thought he was holding a frog….but upon closer inspection he is holding an imaginary (only to us) leprechaun ….(he must be Irish.)

The statue’s facial expression appears to hide the amusement of a secret world that only children can live in….imaginary friends who stay beside them and sit with them through the preciously short time called “childhood.”

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Robert Louis Stevenson–“… every child can remember laying his head in the grass, staring into the infinitesimal forest and seeing it grow populous with fairy armies …”

“Court of Faeries”- James Christensen

If we lose our curiosity, wonder, and awe of God’s world somewhere along our journey…our quality of life basically ends  there, I believe. We have become one of the popular “cult” figures…“the living dead.” Our “spirit and soul” are gone before our physical body catches up.

We no longer are amazed at the stars or in awe of the birth of a child. We can no longer retreat to an imaginary world filled with fairies and leprechauns. The beauty of a new bloom unfolding no longer brings joy…it is at this point that the spirit dies a sad and longing death.

(How can I ever imagine not stopping in wonder and awe before my first hydrangea bloom in all its changing beauty…with the light blue streaks starting to appear….or see a new bloom on the exquisite iris and not sigh in contentment and happiness?)

Source: Excerpts from- Awakin Weekly: “Radical Amazement” Rabbi Abraham Hoshua Heschel.

…”The surest way to suppress our ability to understand the meaning of God and the importance of worship is to take things for granted. Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the the beginning of the end.”

…”As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation. The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder.”

“Awareness of the divine begins with wonder.“

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After reading the rabbi’s article in its entirety a song about wonder started nudging at my “neurons”….and then it finally came:  “I Wonder as I Wander.”

How could I forget that most beautiful, haunting melody that we sing at Christmas? It is one of my favorite hymns for its melodious tune. When I researched the origin of the song…I was in “wonder and awe” at the story behind its creation. Enjoy!

Source: From the First Congregational United Church of Christ-from a sermon by Rev. Nicholas Hatch

Behind the Hymn: “I Wonder as I Wander”

“I Wonder as I Wander” is a hymn written by folklorist and singer John Jacob Niles. Niles was born in Kentucky where he was deeply exposed to the ethnic folk tunes of the south Appalachian culture. His life took him many places. He was a pilot in World War I and then attended and graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory. He moved to Chicago, sang in the Lyric Opera, was on the radio, and eventually ended up in New York City performing American spirituals, gaining an RCA record label.

But, despite his extensive education and travels, Niles’s great musical love remained the haunting, transient and unique spirituals of the Appalachian Mountains. He spent a great deal of his life returning to forgotten Appalachian towns, combing through small hollers and town squares building a library of folk melodies.

On a cold day in December in Murphy, North Carolina, after being ordered to leave the town by police for attending a fundraiser held by Evangelical Christians, Niles said this:

A girl stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached to an automobile. She began singing. Her clothes were unbelievable dirty and ragged, and she, too, was unwashed. Her ash-blond hair hung down in long skeins. . . . but best of all she was beautiful in a spiritual way- a light shone upon her little face, and in her untutored way, she could sing like an angel. She smiled as she sang, rather sadly, and sang only a single line of a song.  She said that this was the only line her mother and grandmother passed down. (Lyon 2003, 200)

Niles took this melody, and her words, and this is how we have the song “I Wonder as I Wander.” He spent years trying to locate the origin of the song, and later, to find the girl herself. Neither of which he was ever able to do.

Perhaps this simple story parallels that of the Christ child—a person of humble beginnings bringing great news for the world. It leaves us with the questions: In what small corners of this world have beautiful, fleeting and mysterious moments of faith happened to you? Where have you looked? And, perhaps, where have you looked and missed the girl, or the child, sharing a beautiful song.

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John Rutter – I wonder as I wander – Cambridge … – YouTube

So until tomorrow….Nudge us Father to go out into Your world of wonder and awe and find Your Presence in its beauty.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* I had ordered two floats for the pool (Jake and Eva Cate) and had planned to give the dolphin and turtle to the children at Mandy’s party but since the rains fell and there could be no pool party…I held off until I babysat last Sunday.

Eva Cate got in the pool yesterday afternoon and loves her dolphin! Boo loves dolphins too! In fact Anne found this picture of Fungi, the Dingle dolphin, with me at the Dingle marina.