Shade Tree Wisdom 6/3/13

Shade Tree Wisdom 6/3/13


       Hard to find the best way to start this day. A tornado swept over another Oklahoma suburb. One family survived by using their dug-in shelter. When the sounds of the howling winds died away they cautiously opened their shelter and the woman stepped out first. An errant wind picked her up, lifted her some 3 feet in the air and set her down, and she scrambled to safety in the shelter.

       Elsewhere, heavy rains and floods though much of the Midwest, fires in the far west with over 1000 homes evacuated, and the Houston Fire Department suffered the loss of 4 firefighters in one fire. Such a loss has never before happened in the long history of this department. Funerals are set for Wednesday in Reliant Stadium. The City is in mourning.

       In the news also is the report that Rice University was successful in raising one billion dollars to strengthen departments, to build dormitories, to serve many more students.

       Yet it is June, Lowell’s poem comes to mind. Remember it?

'Tis heaven alone that is given away,
'Tis only God may be had for the asking;
There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer.

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:

Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, grasping blindly above it for light,

       Let’s just remember it is God who reigns now and forever.

GPD 6/3/13