15 October 2013

O Perfect Day

O gift of God! O perfect day:
 
Whereon shall no man work, but play;
Whereon it is enough for me,
Not to be doing, but to be!
 
 
Through every fibre of my brain,
Through every nerve, through every vein,
I feel the electric thrill, the touch
Of life, that seems almost too much.
 
 
I hear the wind among the trees
Playing celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument.
 
 
And over me unrolls on high
The splendid scenery of the sky,
Where though a sapphire sea the sun
Sails like a golden galleon,


Towards yonder cloud-land in the West,
Towards yonder islands of the Blest,
Whose steep sierra far uplifts
Its craggy summits white with drifts...


O Life and Love! O happy throng
Of thoughts, whose only speech is song!
O heart of man! canst thou not be
Blithe as the air is,
and as free?
~
A birthday party,

a trip through the coast range adorned in all its autumn finery of yellow, orange and red,
a meal shared with loved ones
followed by
an afternoon at the coast on a day that felt more like summertime then autumn.
A perfect day indeed!
And I hear a sweet, sweet rumor that the next week or so will be just as perfect:)
Have a great week!
 Blessings,  Aimee
 
 Photos:
central Oregon coast
 
Text:
A Day of Sunshine
From Birds of Paradise.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(in the public domain)
 
The full text of Longfellow's poem can be found here:
 
And you can see this page for use of the poem:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
(If I understand it correctly, the text of the poem may be used--but check it out)
 
And for those of you who made it to the end, here is a little bit of Aimee trivia.
1) I have several poets in my lineage,
including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
I am also related to Noah.
But then so are you:)
2) My favorite, and I mean favorite, sorbet flavor is lemon.
Mmm!
 I love lemon SO much that I used to suck on raw lemon slices when I was little.
(something I wouldn't recommend by the way).
I also love to chew ice.
(ditto above remark).

3) I once ate a dog cookie
thinking it was an animal cracker.
It wasn't (gag, gag),
but now I have a little more understanding as to why dogs beg when they see us eating our food.

4) I once had a whole lot of people looking for a room that didn't exist at a very famous
National Park Lodge.
It's funny what can happen when you don't realize you're holding a room key upside down.

5) The best pineapple are the ones you get right in the fields.
I am NOT lying!
Ditto strawberries.
Speaking of Hawaii,
In addition to eating fresh pineapple and papaya there, I've had poi.
It was at its best -- I thought -- followed quickly by big bites of pudding
(no offense meant to any Hawaiians who might be reading this post; it's JUST me).

6) I grew up loving International food because when we ate out that was what we generally had...
one of the first restaurants, I remember, was a Japanese one where we sat on pillows around a low table. It wasn't until years later that I learned there was a pit under the table for your legs.
LOL.
I still LOVE International foods;
my DH on the other hand 'tolerates' them.

7) Of all my ancestors, the ones I would most love to meet are the women.
I am amazed at them!
How did they find the courage to sail to America to start a new life,
when I am scared of hiking in the mountains by myself?
How did they find strength to go on and not give up when they lost not one, but several children?
I SO wish I could just have all of them over for a chat and some tea...
If you could have an ancestor over for tea (or coffee) who would you pick and why?

Argh. One thing they couldn't answer is why is my html going crazy this week:(
 
 

 


10 comments:

Linda W. said...

Yes, indeed you had a perfect day! Lovely photos! And your grandkids look like they are having a blast. Isn't this week's forecast awesome? Too bad I have to work......

Teresa Kasner said...

What a wonderful thing that you had such nice weather this time of year! I hope you're right about next week, as we head there a week from today! Thanks for all the fun facts about yourself. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Gracie Saylor said...

Delightful, Aimee :) I was enthralled in waves of romantic appreciation by Wordsworth's words and your photos of the sea and then I chuckled my way through the trivia points of your post.

Anne Bradstreet, the first published poetess in America, is one of my ancestresses. From what I know of her, she was a woman of faith, well educated, resilient through suffering and daring in exercising her creativity in spite of criticism. I would like to share a pot of tea with her and thank her for being such a positive example to me of a life well lived.
Blessings,
Gracie xx

Willow said...

What a great post Aimee !
Beautiful poem . I love Longfellow ~ and to be related , nice genes LOL
Was also fun learning more about you .
I always loved Little House on the Prairie so I would probably like to sit and chat with Laura Ingles -Wilder and women of frontier times.

Betsy said...

Love the pictures and the poem but I really enjoyed learning more about you! I'm with you on the poi. Not my favorite, but I really liked the purple sweet rolls. :-)

It looks like today is going to be as gorgeous as yesterday. We need to soak each of these lovely days up before winter hits.
Blessings,
Betsy

aimee said...

@Linda~
It was! We didn't expect it to be so nice after seeing so-so weather in the valley and mountains.
The 10 day forecast looks good, so this weekend should be a great one for outdoor activities and more of your wonderful photos! BTW, did you know they opened the Palmer Chairlift? :)
Blessings, Aimee

@Teresa~
I agree--it was a HUGE blessing! Yippee on your upcoming trip! Have a great one:)
Blessings,
Aimee

@Gracie~
SO happy you enjoyed this little poetry post -- Longfellow's words perfectly expressed my own feelings as I experienced the beauty of the sea!
Hee, hee! Glad to hear you enjoyed my little trivia section...
I've heard of your ancestor Anne before!!! I want to be there, should you ever get the chance to have tea with her, and I am bringing a surprise guest with me--someone she might know:) BTW, do you think we'll have tea in heaven?
Blessings, Aimee

@Willow~
Thank you! Yea, I kind of like being related to him and some other poets! Too bad I didn't inherit their poetic talent though! Oh well:):)
TY, oh "Willowy One", one of your posts was my inspiration for the trivia section. That, and the fact that I couldn't get rid of a big empty section at the end of this post:)
YES! Me too...I just watched a movie last night based on one of her writings! OK--tea with Gracie and Anne; tea (or perhaps cranberry juice) with Laura and Willow--and perhaps her amazing barnyard animals!
Blessings,
Aimee

@Betsy~
TY! Now you have me curious about those purple sweet rolls...I'll have to research them. We had our poi at a 'luau' at the Polynesian Cultural Center during our first trip to Hawaii (Oahu). Where did you have yours?
Oh yes---I am drinking in every moment of this God-given blessing and taking full advantage of it to dry our laundry outside:)
Blessings,
Aimee

Mia said...

What a perfect day. And such perfect photos!

Thank you, Aimee, for your always so lovely comments in my blog. Please do know they are highly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time.

Mia

aimee said...

@Mia~
I am so glad you enjoyed my photos of our coast! Thank you so very much for stopping by and leaving a comment. I always enjoy your blog and seeing your creativity in the garden and home! Your posts always leave me feeling very peaceful:)
Blessings,
Aimee

Sallie said...

What a fun post, definitely a perfect day at one of my favorite areas in the country. Your photos perfectly illustrate the classic poem. Longfellow couldn't have done it better! And I loved the trivia bits getting to know you better....nicely done!

aimee said...

@Sallie~
Thank you very much! I loved the poem and I always love our time at the beach--especially when a lot of seagulls are there too:)
Safe and blessed travels to you!
Blessings, Aimee

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