In our garden: Reflections on Earth Day 2016

Purple iris

Earth Day, a day that inspires awareness and appreciation of all the gifts earth and nature gives us, was observed worldwide on April 22.

It is often said that love begins in the home. And, so does our love for our planet earth. Last week, in preparation for Earth Day, I took advantage of our moderate temperatures that we who live in the San Francisco Bay Area enjoy throughout the year. The opportunity to be outside allowed me to spend some quality time in our garden.

As I looked around, I thought to myself: "If I love the earth, all will bloom naturally."

We are blessed to have nine different rose bushes as well as irises, calla lilies, fuchsias, rhododendrons and camellias surrounding our house. Indeed, we have an abundance of beautiful blooms throughout the entire year, especially during the month of April when all of them are in bloom at the same time. They get plenty of sunshine and clean air, and as we are aware that northern California is in a drought, we are mindful not to be careless in how much we water our flowers and plants.

And, so, in celebration of Earth Day, as I do so often throughout the year, I grabbed my camera and took lots of photographs, recording these colorful moments in our garden for others to appreciate and enjoy. Consider it  as my random act of kindness. 

May every day be like Earth Day to us.

Queen Elizabeth rose

All That Jazz rose

Purple rhododendron

Calla lily

Rainbow-colored rose

All photographs © Michael Dickens, 2016.

Christmas 2015: Sharing our humanity

May there be peace on Earth, good will towards men.
How lovely are the messengers 
that preach us the gospel of peace!

There are so many different things that can tie together a good message about our faith, love and hope in God. And, there are plenty of good messages that are worth sharing. Sometimes, it just takes moving in the slow lane of life, observing, and enjoying the journey.

With Christmas just a few days away, I would like to share a Christmas Day poem by the 19th-century Scottish poet and essayist Robert Louis Stevenson reflecting our common humanity:

A Prayer for Christmas Morning

By Robert Louis Stevenson

The day of joy returns, Father in Heaven, and

crowns another year with peace and good will.

Help us rightly to remember the birth of Jesus, that

we may share in the song of the angels, the 

gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the

wise men.

Close the doors of hate and open the doors of

love all over the world.

Let kindness come with every gift and good

desires with every greeting.

Deliver us from evil, by the blessing that Christ

brings, and teach us to be merry with clean hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy to 

be thy children.

And the Christmas evening bring us to our bed

with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for 

Jesus's sake.

Amen.

Wishing kind thoughts for a Merry Christmas. Although we are of many faiths, it is important that our common humanity allows us to share a season of peace and goodwill.

Welcoming the return of summer to our garden

What a lovely thing a rose is! -- Arthur Conan Doyle

All That Jazz / It's summer in our backyard garden and our
All That Jazz roses are blooming brightly.

It's the first week of summer -- sunshine and all -- and a welcoming time indeed.

Last Saturday, the sun arrived at its northernmost point in the sky. With it, we heralded a season of change on Earth as summer officially began in the Northern Hemisphere. As for our neighbors in the Southern Hemisphere, it's their time for winter. No worries, though. Your time for summer will come again, soon.

Now, as the beauty of the morning sun glistens over our backyard garden, it's a delight -- more than ever -- to photograph our summer roses.

Photograph by Michael Dickens, © 2014.

In our garden: Reflections on Earth Day 2013

Earth Day, a celebration of what the earth gives us, was celebrated across the world on Monday.

It is often said that love begins in the home. And, so does our love for our planet earth. Yesterday, amid clear skies and a wealth of lovely sunshine that greeted the San Francisco Bay Area, I seized an opportunity to get outside for a little while and spent some time in our garden.

As I looked around, I thought to myself: "If I love the earth, all will bloom naturally."

We are blessed to have nine different rose bushes as well as irises, calla lilies, fuchsias, rhododendrons and camellias surrounding our house. Indeed, we have an abundance of beautiful blooms throughout the entire year, especially during the month of April.

And, so, in celebration of Earth Day yesterday, I grabbed my camera and started taking photographs, recording these precious moments in our garden for others to cherish. Consider it  as my random act of kindness. 

May every day be like Earth Day to us.

Iris

Mr. Lincoln rose

Pristine rose

Calla lily

Rhododendron

All photographs by Michael Dickens, copyright 2013. All rights reserved.

A sacred space is graced with light

Sacred space /Graced With Light

Imagine a series of light pathways that connect heaven and earth, manifest as ribbons.

Graced With Light is a stunning, music-inspired installation created by American visual artist Anne Patterson that incorporates a French Gothic-style cathedral's vaulted ceiling arches.

In engaging audiences through this remarkable creation that synthesizes art and music, light and sound, space and self, Graced With Light, which had its debut last month in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, brings the beauty of art into a famed sacred space.

Grace Cathedral, whose ancestral parish, Grace Church, was founded in 1849 during the California Gold Rush, has always been a place to belong; a place to explore; a place to go deeper in one's faith. And, Graced With Light, part of a celebration of 100 Years of Music at Grace Cathedral, is designed to grow and change.

As I entered Grace Cathedral on an overcast Easter Sunday morning, I saw the Episcopal cathedral, located on Nob Hill, in a brand new light. What I witnessed was miles upon miles of colorful ribbon ~ 20 miles-worth of shimmering ribbon ~ hand-assembled by Patterson, this year's cathedral artist in residence, with help from the Grace Cathedral community.

Each viewing of Graced With Light will be different thanks to the way in which light reflects inside the cathedral from both the natural ceiling lights as well as from the many colorful stained glass windows.

The message Patterson has conveyed is a personal one ~ and one which left a lasting impression with me. Imagine ribbons carrying our prayers, our dreams and our wishes skyward. And, in return, see grace streaming down the ribbons to each of us.

Graced With Light will be on view at Grace Cathedral through this summer.

To learn more about Graced With Light: http://www.gracecathedral.org/air.

The beauty of a spring flower

The beauty of one of our first orange roses
of the Spring season.

And Spring arose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

Stars: Our fading fascination with space

The days of America sending astronauts into space is over.

Last week, NASA's Space Shuttle program ended with the successful landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis.

What has been a regular fabric of my lifetime ~ American's fascination with space exploration ~ has waned in recent years. There just isn't the same interest in the American space program that I remember as a child, when man was first exploring Moon, starting with the historic Apollo 11 flight in 1969. Remember "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind?"

While Space Shuttle Mission STS-135 was authorized last year, it initially had no appropriation in the NASA budget. There were questions about whether the mission would fly. After a lot of haggling on Capitol Hill, money was found and, finally, STS-135 got the green light to proceed in April. Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched on July 8 and was originally scheduled to land on July 20. However, it was extended by an additional day.

On July 21, Space Shuttle Atlantis safely returned to Earth at 5:57 a.m. EDT and NASA's space shuttle program, for all intents and purposes, ended with the mission's conclusion. Ironically, it was 53 years ago this week that President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA.

Thinking about our nation's space exploration, I am reminded of the ethereal sound scape "Stars" by German electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss, a song I've been listening to on my iPod with great frequency.

Here
Beginning or end.
When it's all gone,
Why should I pretend?
All these days,
Will never come back.
Do you remember,
Or did you forget?


Losing with every step I take,
Losing with every move I make.
Turn into everything I hate,
Losing with every move I make.


Looking at the stars, must be a reason.
Why our hopes feel lost in the glow for every season.
Looking at the stars, I see that they move on.
Because I'm not sure if you miss me, I move on.
I move on ... 
Carry on.

Now, looking up at the sky and admiring all those bright stars on a clear night just won't be the same.

"Stars" lyrics by Ulrich Schnauss, copyright 2007.
Video courtesy of YouTube.