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

© 2013 http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com

 

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:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Day_of_Sunshine

 

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:(