Friday, February 14, 2014

In Praise of God's Creation

Hello friends and blog followers! Here I am posting another bit of writing I put together after considering how amazing all of Creation is! This one is in the vein of nature as experienced in this part of the world.
Yesterday at work I took a very appreciative look at the lovely little creek which flows behind the center at my workplace at Cascadia Society, a Camphill Community in North Vancouver. I wrote a few lines of prose about this body of water here on this blog on June 16th, 2011 if you remember or would like to compare to what I wrote today. Anyways, on my way home last night an image of this creek was stuck in my mind and before I got out of my vehicle to get a few groceries I had to write a few things down before I forgot them. This morning I got to work quite early so I wrote it out again in a semi-good copy and here it is this evening for you to read. It is not entirely based on any one location but is a compilation of a few places
here in western British Columbia. I imagine there could be many places up the coastline that could quite easily be described by these lines though.


                                         The Promise

Vast blue skies promised adventures without end when I was very young...
Thick woods promised hidden treasures when I was a child...
Hills and mountains promised new vistas when I was a teenager...
Long roads on camping trips promised lasting memories when I had a family of my own...

A walk in the dark forest.
It is daytime but everything is in shadows.
Far ahead the glint of sunlight on an undulating brook.
As I get closer the magnificence grows.
Just the faintest glimmer of sun on water promises bright daylight but I would stand here and stare at it forever if I could.
The water and sun together look like liquid gold melting a path between the thick moss carpet, standing fern fronds and the tall coniferous trees.
A raven's cawing-clucking and the wet smell of things turning back into soil remind me this is West Coast.

Later the muffled sound of the sea crashing on sand and rock can be heard beyond pillars of hemlock and cedar.
Much later I can see the wild surf out past a thicket of salmonberries growing on the edge of a bank high above the ocean...

Felix Scharnberg, February 2014