For the Beauty of the Earth

Strength for the Journey
September 1, 2010

“For the Beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies, Christ our God, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.”

This past weekend, a friend, formerly of Wetumpka and now living in Ohio, spent the weekend with Lynn and me. We spent most of our time outdoors in the beauty of Alabama and Elmore County. As I reflected on the weekend and on our time outdoors Alabama, the words of this hymn came to mind. The words to the hymn were written toward the end of the 19th Century by Folliot Sandford Pierpoint, and I believe describe outdoors Alabama very well.

On Friday, our friend, Chris, and I kayaked the Coosa River. We saw only six other people, the breeze was gentle and the hardwoods along the bank were beginning to change colors. Chris and I spoke only a dozen sentences or so the whole day, so absorbed were we in the breeze and light, the water and trees around us. On Sunday afternoon after church and lunch with friends, the three of us sat on our dock on Lake Jordan reading books, chatting (in person, not on a phone) and floating in the lake. Again, the beauty was not just visual, but required all of our senses to take it in.

There is so much beauty in our lives that can remind us of God’s love for us—“for the love which from our birth over and around us lies”—but we are often so busy or stressed to see, feel, hear or taste it. It is often only when friends (one of God’s other gifts to us) come that we slow down long enough to experience this beauty. After my experience this past weekend, I want to encourage, even challenge, you to join me in experiencing the beauty around us and to invite others to share with us in enjoying this beauty. Like God’s love, the beauty is always here, and like God’s love, we sometimes miss it.

I will let the writer of our hymn sum up my feelings on this subject with the third and fourth verses of “For the Beauty of the Earth.”

For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind’s delight,
for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight,
Christ our God, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above for all gentle thoughts and mild
Christ our God, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise

Blessings,
The Rev. Ben Alford
Trinity Episcopal Church

"Old Friends, Sharing a Park Bench Like Book Ends"

In the 1960's Simon and Garfunkle sang a wonderful song about the meaning of life and friendship. At one point in the song, they sang, "I can imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly. How terribly stange to be seventy." While not seventy, quiet yet, I had one of those "old friends" experiences this past weekend. In fact, it is still going on. As I sit writing, I am in Vancouver, British Columbia on the edge of the Fraser River. Lynn and I spent the end of last week in a beautiful town in the interior of BC by the name of Salmon Arm. The occasion was the eighteenth annula Salmon Arms Roots and Blues Music Fesitval. The purpose was good music, cool weather and "old (and new) friends.

The friends were from Alabama, New Orleans, Austin, Texas and Seattle Washington and Salmon Arm. The music was from all over the world: fifty bands, six stages, nine hundred volunteers, ten thousand festival goers and some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen in my life. The musicians were from Canada, the USA, South Africa, England, Cuba, Somalia, Australia, Israel/Ghana Bermuda and Ughanda. The music was the "grassroots" music that grows out of the lives of people and nations, expressing who they are and what is important to them. One of the thrills of the festival was to see the number of really young, twenty-something musicians from all over the world who gave me hope not only for the music of the future but for the world of the future as well.

Our headquarters for the weekend was the home of cousins of one of our traveling companions. We met these friends in Mexico in 2003 when we were in Mexico studying Spanish and have travelled with them since to enjoy good music, our beautiful country and world and to make more new friends.

Last night a new member joined our group as others left it heading back home. The new member was one of my former students from St. Pauls' Episcopal Shcool in New Orleans. I taught her from 1989 until 1991. As the world has continued to shrink, I found her on facebook and got reacquainted. Today she will be our "tour guide" around the city of Vancouver. Last night she gave me instructions on how to use the Skytrain and which kind of ticket to buy so that we will have all day access.

When I think of the gifts God has given us, some of the most important ones that come to mind are good friends (old and new), beautiful and meaningful music, and the beauty of creation. As The Rev. Mark Waldo, Sr. who preached Sunday at Trinity in my absence wrote to me early this morning on email: "Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place, I can see his hand of beauty and his grace. I can feel the touch of angels wings, I see glory in his face. Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place." "This place would be the whole world, the people would be all of God's people throughout the world, both the friends we know and the friends we havn't met yet.

Blessings to all of you from our Northern Neighbor, Canada. I am excited to see all of you next week.

Ben Alford

So Now I have started a blog (I think)

I have entered the world of Blogging with a little help from my friend, Mark Harris. He helped me by phone push the correct buttons and here we are. The purpose of this blog is to help me live more faithfully, and if I am fortunate, to think critically while I am living faithfully. My thanks to the Living Church Magazine for the idea of putting these two concepts together. As faithful citizens of the Kingdom of God, our lives are a journey and critical thinking is a necesssity if we are to survive to live faithfully.

I invite all readers to share their own thoughts and feelings on these important matters. It is my belief that none of us live in a vacuum and that it is our interactions that shape us.

So, as Annie Dillard would say, "sit down, put on your crash helmets, fasten your seat builts and hang on for the ride."

Welcome,

Ben Alford

My first articloe