"I know the beauty of our Lord by it." - Hopkins

Summer breaks are short around here and the past few days we've been dragging ourselves around, quietly mourning the fact that soon the Routine will again be the routine. Laura goes back to school on Wednesday.
     So we went to the North Carolina Zoological Park today for a few short minutes before rain and routine rolled in. The park's flowers and flowering bushes are, at the moment, simply stunning. As I walked through a small butterfly garden the zoo has built, I was again surprised at how a small plot of ground, well-tended, can completely untie you from the normalcy of your environment, whether pavement or busyness or loneliness. It's witchery. And it makes me want to be a gardener. Not someone who dabbles in his yard, but someone who takes hold of it, who tends it, who works in the midst of a garden to discover the joy of vocation and creation and Gardener. A gardener creates something good, a temporary beauty that tills eternity.
     It was a peaceful and good day. And the clouds passed and the sun shone brighter and gentler.