Morning In A New Land
In trees still dripping night some nameless birds
Woke, shook out their arrowy wings, and sang,
Slowly, like finches sifting through a dream.
The pink sun fell, like glass, into the fields.
Two chestnuts, and a dapple gray,
Their shoulders wet with light, their dark hair streaming,
Climbed the hill. The last mist fell away,
And under the trees, beyond time’s brittle drift,
I stood like Adam in his lonely garden
On that first morning, shaken out of sleep,
Rubbing his eyes, listening, parting the leaves,
Like tissue on some vast, incredible gift.
~Mary Oliver (New Year’s Day Poem shared today on Facebook)
All days are sacred days to wake
New gladness in the sunny air.
Only a night from old to new;
Only a sleep from night to morn.
The new is but the old come true;
Each sunrise sees a new year born.
~Helen Hunt Jackson from “New Year’s Morning”
We awake glad,
breathe deeply of the sacred around us
glistening in the light of a soft sunrise.
Each day is a fresh start,
a gift from beyond,
content to renew covenant
with God and one another.
~EPG
No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference.
~Charles Lamb, from the January 1821 London Magazine
The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.
– G.K. Chesterton
~W.S. Merwin from “To the New Year”
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.
You certainly usually find something, if you look,
but it is not always quite the something you were after.
— J.R.R. Tolkien
And to you, the many faithful readers of the Barnstorming blog,
may you open to the extraordinary in the ordinary right outside your back door~
beauty may be found where you least expect it.
Blessings for a peaceful 2018!
Emily
For more “Best of Barnstorming” photos:
Seasons on the Farm:
BriarCroft in Summer, in Autumn, in Winter,
at Year’s End
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Thankyou for all the incredible photos in the past year. Simply beyond words, as they should be. To just breathe them in is to renew life. Each unwraps a Selah worth more than words.
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Beautiful thoughts to begin 2018, as we hope for ‘miracles of peace on earth and new ways for the peoples of our world to respect and to accept our differences in a non-confrontational merciful and understanding way. A tall order to be sure – but our God IS a God of miracles….
Four pics (Nos. 4,5,6,9) of the sky, the ‘heavens,’ emerging in various stages, coincide with your first comment, Emily, “We awake glad…” I can almost hear the blare of trumpet fanfare and choirs of angels announcing the New Year, parallel with your appropriate words: ‘fresh start…’ ‘gift…’ ‘renew….’ — All in all, a beautifully nuanced meditation as we contemplate in thanksgiving to our Creator-God for once again gifting us with an empty slate before us….
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Thank you so much Emily for being such a voice for our dear Lord God. What a beautiful message for the first day of 2018! I look forward to all the unexpected goodness to come. May God find me worthy to be of help and may I hear what He wants me to do for Him.
Blessings to you Emily.
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Such beautiful photos and poems. I enjoy your posts greatly!
Linda Lyle (Sarah Lyle’s sister)
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Thank you, Linda, so nice to “meet” the sister of one of my favorite docs ever!
Emily
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Happy New Year to All,
Thank you Em for your faithful rendering of the ordinary to remind us of the cosmic, and the cosmic to remind us of the ordinary.
NJK
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I think of you as an artist, pairing your words and those of others, with glorious photographs, the whole being so much greater than the sum of the parts, leading to wonderful insights of the divine in the everyday. Your blog is truly a gift!
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Beautiful photos and kind words. Thank you.
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