An untitled poem ("My heart leaps up when I behold") by William Wordsworth

[My heart leaps up when I behold]

My heart leaps up when I behold
    A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old.
    Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

English poet

"Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats

It was English naturalist and writer William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) who said, "It is my experience that, when a nightingale starts singing, the small birds near immediately become attentive, often suspending their own songs. And some fly to perch near him and listen."

To read the poem "Ode to a Nightingale" by English poet John Keats, click here.

John Keats (1795-1821)

Picture for Today, with a Quotation from Charles Eliot Norton

Whatever your occupation may be

and however crowded your hours with affairs,

do not fail to secure at least

a few minutes every day

for refreshment of your inner life

with a bit of poetry.

Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908),

American author and educator

A Quotation from Sigurd F. Olson

In a canoe a man changes and the life he has lived seems strangely remote. Time is no longer of moment, for he has become part of space and freedom. What matters is that he is heading down the misty trail of explorers and voyageurs, with a fair wind and a chance for a good camp somewhere ahead. The future is other lakes, countless rapids and the sound of them, portages through muskeg and over the ledges.

Source: Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

To read an article about Sigurd F. Olson, the author of the quotation above, click here.

Walt Whitman's Love of Life

In section 48 of his poem "Song of Myself" Walt Whitman wrote:

I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.

Over fifty years ago Evelyn Millis Duvall wrote, "Walt Whitman has been an able spokesman for the love of life. In his incomparable way, he sees life as the very signature of God when he says in [section 48 of] 'Song of Myself':"

I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign'd by God's name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe'er I go
Others will punctually come for ever and ever.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Photo credit: George Collins Cox, 1887

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

O Great Spirit,
   whose breath gives life to the world,
   and whose voice is heard in the soft breeze:
We need your strength and wisdom.
Cause us to walk in beauty. Give us eyes
   ever to behold the red and purple sunset.
Make us wise so that we may understand
   what you have taught us.
Help us learn the lessons you have hidden
   in every leaf and rock.
Make us always ready to come to you
   with clean hands and steady eyes,
so when life fades, like the fading sunset,
   our spirits may come to you without shame.

Traditional Native American prayer

Appeal to the Great Spirit,

statue by Cyrus Edwin Dallin