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
It’s the magnolias that I love — see any of those in bloom? One spring J&I went looking for spring about this time of year. We drove straight down to Savannah, GA before we saw them in bloom. After a few days we drove north until we saw them in new bloom, stayed…repeating the fully-loaded tree sighting all the way north.
After a month we returned to Canada where the buds were still not out! Suspect it will be different now with Climate Change moving everything up 2 weeks. 😀
Barbara – We did not see any magnolias in bloom, although we saw some tulip trees/bushes, which are very like the magnolia the squirrel deflowers, literally, in my backyard. Your chasing-Spring trip sounds wonderful.
The redbud trees are among the first to bloom, as I recall. These flowering crabs are delicious!
Laurna – The crabs were some consolation for the absence of the redbud this year. I guess they’re usually mid-to-late April in those parts, so we were a bit early. And the early trees got bit by a late frost. I’m working now on a next-year plan. 🙂