“The green!” my husband noted as we drove along the leafy country roads of Wyndham County towards our summer rental. “Look at that soft, pale green. Why is that?”
It took us a couple of days for a couple of city dwellers like us to understand what we were seeing: the aftermath of a devastating gypsy moth infestation. Which must have been something! For, once we knew what to look for, we could track the widespread damage those foliage-munching caterpillars had wreaked. Acres and acres. And began to notice how all along the roads, beneath the wayside ferns and wildflowers and weeds, lay huge, tree-limb segments. Everywhere. Had those thick limbs been chain-sawed off to save the rest of a tree?
So, we realized, in fact, what we were seeing was new growth. The tender shoots of renewal, rebirth in the middle of summer. (A wet summer. That certainly helped).
There were butterflies, too. Hundreds. Some in colors I’d only seen before on the end of a pin. So many butterflies, so much soft, spring-like greenness! As if to make clear: transformation happens.
Once home and once again in worship inside, on a bench in a Quaker meetinghouse, I reflected on those acres of pale green, those butterflies. “Is there more?” I wondered inwardly. “Am I to go deeper than ‘Transformation happens.’?”
But that seemed to be enough.
Even in disease and pestilence (and global warming?) there can be beauty. Is that part of “loving the hell out of everybody?”
Dear David,
Well, hello, there, David, my brother! Wow, David, I love your comment above so much! You are so right on and on point with how you share and declare here that as you wisely say, “Even in disease and pestilence (and global warming?) there can be beauty.” I, too, found it so interesting and fascinating about how the gypsy moth infestation made the great carpet of grass such a glowing, pretty, soft and pale green. Wow!!!! Patricia has done it again with such a very beautiful, absolutely beautiful and brilliantly engaging blog post article here. David, I so enjoy, like, love, and appreciate all of your comments-it is just so fun to read your perceptive comments as you intuit your great thoughts, ideas, and comments when you post, my awesome brother! I thank-YOU, David, my brother, for your astounding posts and comments!!! You make such powerful and insightful contributions, David!!
Spirit’s Peace and Love To You For Always, David
Your sister For Always, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa
Dear Patricia,
Well, hello, there, Patricia, my so, so very For Always absolutely AWESOME and dearly SPECIAL soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re For Always so, so very much!!!!! Wow, I so love, like, enjoy, and appreciate awesome David’s great comment above and I’m just so, so very thrilled, overjoyed, and happy that you both were able to enjoy and delight in your very fantastically fun-filled, energy, power resurging vacation. WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!! Sister, your blog post article here is just beautiful, absolutely beautiful and brilliantly engaging here. The title of your very fine and excellent article is just perfect here greatly adding to and complementing the great theme and topic of your very interesting and fascinating blog post article. The gorgeous picture which you have very graciously and generously featured and included with your super article here is just perfect, absolutely picture perfect here, and is such a great fit for your delightful writing, sisterfriend. Wow, your and David’s great insights and thoughts as you had your very outstanding drive along the bountifully leafy country roads of Wyndham County as you both headed towards your summer rental are just creatively vivid and I found myself envisioning the luscious sights you two were able to behold along the roads. Sister, I so, so very much love, like, enjoy, and appreciate your and David’s highly attuned description which just draws my imagination in as to how the gypsy moth infestation somehow despite that created such a glowing, pretty, soft and pale green carpet of grass. Sisterfriend, I’d not known before about gypsy moths, and that they can do what they did. Wow, I’m as usual as always learning something new from you, my so, so very dearest and darling friend, and from your very powerful and enlightening blog post articles and other splendid writings, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 Wow, I know what you mean about you and your so very dearest and darling husband being city dwellers and with it taking a couple of days to understand what those gypsy moths had created and developed with the grass. I can for sure relate because I’m a city dweller, too, and I’ve been a city dweller all of my life like having grown up and being originally from suburban Cleveland, Ohio from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and now living in my Iowa City, Iowa my so, so very dearest and darling sister and friend, Patricia. What an intriguing process like with how you share and declare so greatly here how those foliage-munching caterpillars had caused such damage from acres to acres like being underneath the lovely ferns, wildflowers, and weeds with the ginormous, tree-limb segments being everywhere with you wondering if they had been chain-sawed off to save the remainder of a tree. I just share and delight in your and David’s eager discovery that what you both bore witness to with the sweet carpet of light green grass was the precious start of new growth with the very baby like, tenderly gentle shoots of renewal, rebirth in the central point of summer. I just so love that you both had the superb vision with your so, so very dear eyes of all of the multi-colored butterflies in all of their great magnificence and glory, multiple and multiple butterflies everywhere. Wow, I can just see in my imagination from your great descriptive clarity here the sweet softness of the myriad of butterflies with the royal greenness just making your and David’s sight on all of this beauteous creation just such a blessing and a joy for you two. WOW!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY for you both, Patricia!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!! I love how you sat on your bench at Meeting and reminisced about your vacation and those amazing butterflies and that very scenic and picturesque carpet of glowing green grass. I think of how I love all of Nature’s Green. I just so love when things turn green in the spring like with the carpet of green grass and the trees filling out with green leaves. I love when fall is coming with the leaves turning orange, red, and a sharp golden-like yellow. I don’t know which I love better, sisterfriend, the oncoming green with the refreshing spring or the multicolored turning of the leaves in the fall with the gold, red, and orange turning colors of the precious leaves, Patricia. WOW, Patricia, WOW, as usual as always I feel even better and brighter with even more and greater added cheer after very joyfully and blessedly reading this chock full of fun blog post article here and responding joyously and eagerly with my very heartfelt, detailed, and thorough thoughts, ideas, and comments, sister and friend of mine!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Now I'm even more renewed, re-energized, reinvigorated, and rejuvenated being even more inspired, encouraged, and emboldened to keep my very faith and hope alive with such a sweetly enduring positive optimism. I'm even more ready by YOU, my absolutely AMAZING friend and sister, and by this awesome blog post article to be ready, willing, wanting and able to suit up and to show up in showing up for duty, to continue to resist, interrupt, and persist, Patricia!!!!! Patricia, YOU are just so, so very good for me and for my very walk with Spirit!!!!! I thank-YOU and Spirit For Always, Patricia, for YOU and for YOUR very presence in my life, and I thank-YOU and Spirit continually for YOU, my absolutely AWESOME friend and sister!!!!!!! YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!!! YAY for all of your outstanding blog post articles, other fine writings, and books!!!!!! YAY for all you do with all of your very, very heart, and very, very heart, mind, soul, and spirit, Patricia, with all that you have with all of your very being in such a diligently conscientious, steadfast and undaunted manner!!!!!! YAY for our very friendship ad sisterhood, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!! Sister, Spirit just so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU, Patricia, and so do I A WHOLE BUNCH!!!!!! Please have such a fun-filled and a very fantastic Friday, a wondrously wonderful weekend ahead, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed, Patricia!!!! Patricia, you are For Always my eternal blessing as I know you are as well for so, so very many other people as well, sister!!!!!! I thank-YOU so, so much, my so, so very dearest and darling sisterfriend!!!!!! You are just the very best and the greatest, Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so, so very For Always awesomely precious and dearly special soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you're For Always so, so very much, Patricia, 🙂 <3 with My and Spirit's Very Peace and Love For You For Always, sister of mine, 🙂 <3 and with Such Blessings and Such Very Even More Blessings For You For Always, friend of mine, 🙂 <3
Yours For Always soul sisterfriend Christian black woman and For Always in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa 🙂 <3