For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night
Hill and vale and tree and flow’r
Sun and Moon and stars of light
Sun and Moon and stars of light
‘Lord of all, to Thee we raise
“For the Beauty of the Earth”
This our joyful hymn of praise
I’ve been listening to a lot of old hymns lately (part of my continued dive into church history and liturgy, I suppose) and this is one of them. So I was rather delighted to find it sung and quoted in Women Talking. Perhaps a good reminder of both the beauty and abuse of church history.
Some highlights this week:
- The continued chance to walk with a friend through loss. While certainly not a highlight, there is a sort of grace in being able to sit down with a friend going through a miscarriage and listen and share what I’ve learned in my own experiences.
- The pig dressed for Easter.
- Speaking of neighbourhood decor…a couple of weeks ago I walked by a house and noticed it was suddenly sporting a Russian flag (and hadn’t been previously). I passed it again this week and four surrounding houses are now flying Ukrainian flags.
- Tulips beginning to bloom in our garden. One of my favourite flowers and I love finding the new ones that pop up each spring.
- On Wednesday my boss took all the staff at work out for dinner (there are 6 of us total). It was a fun and delicious dinner.
- Tea, jam, and honey, all locally made!
- We filled a bird feeder for our backyard. (Pearl made it at school.) The girls were anxious to watch the birds come eat without being seen so they decided they would hide in their playhouse. “Do you think the birds can understand our plans?” they asked me anxiously as I hung the feeder.
- On Tuesday, one of my library holds came in for me, The Books of Jacob, Olga Tokarczuk’s new book. I thought Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead was terrific and thought this newest offering sounded interesting. I vaguely knew it was a big book but it wasn’t until I actually got it home that I realized it is 965 pages. Add to that, because it’s a new book, the library borrowing period is two weeks rather than the usual three. I hesitated over whether I should even embark on it; can I read 965 pages in 14 days? Can I do it without terribly neglecting my children? We’re going to find out because I’ve decided to take up the challenge! I’m writing this on Friday morning and I’m on page 774 (oh yes, the pages are numbered backward so we’re counting down) and am planning out my reading to finish this giant book by April 19th. It works out to about 70 pages per day. I’ll keep you posted!
Karissa Reads Books 
That’s a lovely hymn you’ve quoted at the top – I’d never heard it before but I’ve just listened to it and I really love it! Thank you for introducing me to it. I’ve just started going to a new church and we sing a mixture of hymns and contemporary songs, and I’m enjoying that – my old church was almost all contemporary.
I’ve been listening to more hymns lately. Some old ones but also some new versions of old hymns. Another recent favourite is “How Firm a Foundation.”
Love the profusion of Ukrainian flags sprouting in response to the Russian one! Can’t imagine being proud of being Russian right at the moment.
Yeah, I have sympathy for regular Russian people but I can’t imagine choosing to hang up that flag in the midst of all this and thinking that’s a good idea. So I was sort of delighted to witness the quiet protest of these neighbours!
I was telling some classmates that I always think of tulips as the “Narcan flower.” They’re awesome for about three days and then fall over. Maybe that’s not a terribly appropriate reference, but it seems fitting if you want the tulips to stay sprung longer.
Haha! That’s pretty funny!
Thank you, I thought so, but some folks looked at me side eye while also laughing. Honestly, when I see a tulip that was great Monday and flopped over by Thursday, I always picture that scene in Pulp Fiction when they hit Uma Thurman with the Narcan, so that’s where that comes from.
I feel like my tulips do last longer than that but now I’m going to be keeping a close eye on them!