the dawn eagle sunning himself on the highest tree,
the mountain revealing herself unclouded, her snow
tinted apricot as she looked west,
Tolerant, in her steadfastness, of the restless sun
forever rising and setting.
Now I am given
a taste of the grey foretold by all and sundry,
a grey both heavy and chill. I've boasted I would not care,
I'm London-born. And I won't. I'll dig in,
into my days, having come here to live, not to visit.
Grey is the price
of neighboring with eagles, of knowing
a mountain's vast presence, seen or unseen.
Meditation
The way we respond to the natural environment is directly reflects the way we treat human beings. The willingness to exploit the environment is revealed in the willingness to permit avoidable human suffering. So the survival of the natural environment is also the survival of ourselves. When we will understand that a crime against nature is a crime against ourselves and sin against God?(Bartholomew I)
Musical Selection
God, whose farm is all creation, take the gratitude we give; take the finest of our harvest, crops we grow that all may live.
Take our ploughing, seeding, reaping, hopes and fears of sun and rain, all our thinking, planning, waiting, ripening into fruit and grain.
All our labour, all our watching, all our calendar of care, in these crops of your creation, take, O God: they are our prayer.
