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April 22, 2005

Frog Run

A Prayer in Spring
Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

While work and other responsibilities (Orion foremost among them) have expanded beyond the limits of time, the seasonal dance that is spring in the North Country has begun in earnest:

Over the past week, the steady dripping of maple sap into buckets that accompanied our walks to school was replaced last week by a growing chorus of frogs from across the road.

This morning, a heavy frost covered an inchworm that drifted above the trail at head-height on its silken strand.

Snowdrops pressed their way through the still yellow mat of unkempt fescue, drowsy in the chill of morning.

The sugar shack

From afar, the forest is clad in faint echoes of its autumnal hues (in "that other fall we name the fall").

Spring is composed of daily impressions; it is not one season, but a crescendo of countless intimate encounters. Orion has been able to join me on many of these forays into the forest, and he rarely slumbers while we saunter, his eyes darting from light to shadow, from tree to sky to field in a silent, specular cadastral survey. He, too, cannot help but greet the beauty of each morning with laughter.

Orion outlasting his older cousin

Posted by pavel at April 22, 2005 8:59 AM

Comments

Hello Orion, missed you. You are so much bigger! Love you.

Posted by: Gina at April 22, 2005 10:03 AM

Do I detect a hint of *red* in Orion's hair? What a surprise!

Posted by: Lorianne at April 22, 2005 7:53 PM

Orion's smile. How his entire little being just leaps out of his eyes. Like an exultant puppy. Human beings are incredible. My boy still smiles like that (18 mnths). Thank God.

Posted by: Melinda at April 25, 2005 6:07 PM