A full moon illuminates the pink petals strewn upon the ground. The season has advanced. The wind has blown. The petals have fallen. They will fade away. To me, this bush has a special significance. A week ago I paused to admire its delicate, sun-lit blossoms, to savor its fragrant scent. In a romantic moment, I wrote a poem, comparing it to my beloved.
Now it is night. The symbol of vitality has become a token of mortality.
The petals fall;
the season moves along.
The music stops
as dies away the echo of the song.
The moments pass;
they linger but a while,
as life presents
its transitory smile.So fade the joys:
so also dry the tears,
for sorrow too
and hurts and fears
are passing guests
through these few years.Help us, 0 Lord,
to grasp the truths that last,
before our fleeting lives
blend into the past,
that we may see
in happiness and pain
some fragments of eternity
and life eternal gain.
“So we do not lose heart.
Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.
For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (II Cor. 4:16-18).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One