All Things Great and Small

If you have never given yourself the pleasure of reading the James Herriot novels (the first in the series was All Things Bright and Beautiful) about a country vet in Ireland, I would encourage you to do so.  They are warm, funny, and lyrical; moreover they are down-to-earth and yet at the same time reflect a more idealisitic view of life than we generally see portrayed these days.

The author very cleverly, in my opinion, used an old poem from which to draw four of his titles, and thus it made the reader more apt to recall and select the next volume in the series.

The poem is All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil F. Alexander.  It was written in 1848 as part of a children's set of hymns.

Many of you may already be familiar with this poem, however the following is a quick excerpt that has long been a favorite of mine.

All thing bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful:

The Lord God made them all.

Today as I was driving back from the clinic, the day was so clear and full of the first burst of spring that I found myself reciting the verse above as I drove past almond trees laden with their spring blossoms.  Daffodils are also up nearly everywhere you look, and yesterday I saw two or three redbud bushes blooming.  It just makes me smile.

 

"All things bright and beautiful" ... this reminded me of something I read once (I cannot recall the author) who advised that in order to have harmony in one's surroundings, we should have nothing in our homes that we do not consider to be either useful or beautiful.  I believe that this whole "hoarding" issue that we hear of on TV could be solved handily if we applied that criteria to our surroundings.  I am just saying ....

I have actually used this principle during our recent move to a home we hope to live in for the "rest of our days."   It was a particularly difficult move becaused we had lived in that house for over twenty years, and because I had to be a hundred miles away when others packed up our belongings.  Thus, I did not have the opportunity to sort, donate and discard before the move.

Instead, when I faced our new garage full of boxes and crates, I went through each one and refused to carry anything into the new place that did not meet at least one of the two criteria of being either useful or beautiful.  I am truly enjoying the results of that pruning process.  I have cupboards that are only half-full.  What a treat!

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Here's hoping you are feeling wise and wonderful yourself.  Until next time ...Marsha