Our new neighbors next door planted a flower garden in the spring. Their flowers grew, but so did the “volunteer” sunflowers that our previous neighbors had planted the year before. And now we glory in their ecstatic, erotic effulgence.
Copyright © Ralph Milton
So also do the bees and flies and butterflies and bugs, that farm these flowers. More logical, more scientific minds than mine say that bees and blossoms just do what they do. There is no ecstasy. Nothing erotic. But I am a fool who sees it, who feels it, who glories in it.
Copyright © Ralph Milton
Nah! Those bugs are simply harvesting the nectar and the pollen for the honey that will feed their family hives. True. But those bugs also sweeten my life and my family and the lives of many whom I love.
Copyright © Ralph Milton
For bees, and for farmers like my brother-in-law Jim, farming is an act of faith — faith in the wonderful, terrifying urge to life that God has loved into each plant and animal and microbe — the urge to life that energizes every atom of our earth. And fills our lives with beauty if we open our eyes to see.
Copyright © Ralph Milton
And the sunflowers. Whether in huge fields delighting Jim or volunteers delighting my neighbor Andrea. By turning their golden faces to the sun, toward the source of life, they urge us to turn our faces fully to our source of life, and proclaim Thanksgiving deep into the center of our aching souls.
Thanksgiving greetings to Canadians celebrating this festival, and to friends in other parts of the world, some of whom are celebrating springtime.
Ralph Milton
Dr. Ralph Milton is one of Canada’s best-known religious communicators, and a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Sacred Letters from St. Stephen’s College, Edmonton. He also has an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Vancouver School of Theology. A former news broadcaster, open line host and church administrator, Milton is the author of 17 books including the bestselling Family Story Bible; Angels in Red Suspenders; and Julian’s Cell, a novel based on the life of Julian of Norwich. Co-founder of Wood Lake Publishing, Ralph Milton lives in Kelowna, British Columbia, with his wife and friend of 50 years, Beverley, a retired church minister.
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