When the cedar waxwings arrive for their annual feast of the Savannah holly berries, I know spring has arrived. Nature has it’s own rhythm, and I can almost tell time by her if I pay attention. I thought the birds were early this year, but in reading my past journals they are right on time. Why would I even question Mother Nature?? After all, she points the way to God. Why would I doubt that???

It’s grand to watch the flock swoop in and out of the holly branches scarfing up every last berry. They stay a little more than a week stripping the branches just in time for the emerging birth of new blossoms to start the cycle all over again.

The Great Banquet

cedar waxwing feasting on red berries

St. Mary's in Sewanee, Tn. -April 6, 2008

Despite the fact my garden looks like a bomb exploded in it, signs of spring are emerging. Look around- the saucer magnolia, red bud, and Chickasaw plum trees are blooming. My daffodils are about to pop open in Pensacola, while up in the Alabama country the snow drops are in full bloom and the daffodils are in tight bud form. God is always pointing the way to new life and resurrection- just look around. How are you finding renewal this year?

“Daffodils” (1804)

I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch’d in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed — and gazed — but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

The Daffodil Field in Boligee, Al.

A view from below the snow drop- Boligee, Al.

field of snow drops in Alabama