The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning, but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life.
The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun, and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon.
It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. (paragraph breaks added)
Source: Orthodoxy, GK Chesterton
Are they berries or wild grapes? I know not.
John W
They could possibly be either blue Virginia creepers or Nightshade. Both are poisonous.
The rule of the thumb is to never eat berries that are on a vine.
Tom
Tom – Yikes – good to know. Berries have to be on a bush to be OK, eh?
They could also, according to my “Like that garden app”, be holly leaf barberries.
Tom
Tom – Our friends who were holding the camera thank you. It will be better if we don’t immortalize my entry or exit from a kayak in a photo.
Tom – I see why you/it thinks so, although I think my picture is nicer. Since I wasn’t interested in making jelly, only in taking pictures, I didn’t bother looking closely at the plant.
Those are Oregon Grapes, and they grow all over the Okanagan. Wild, and in gardens. Beautiful yellow flowers that smell like cheap perfume in the spring, deep purple berries in the fall, multi-coloured leaves that last through the winter. Also, I am told the berries make great jelly but are very tart. I’ve not tried that, but I do know they taste very tart. Have never heard that they hurt anyone, and some birds eat them. Best to all . . .
Ralph – Thanks! I missed the cheap-perfume season, thank goodness!