Book Review- Turning of Days by Hannah Anderson

 

Turning of Days: Lessons from Nature, Season, and Spirit by Hannah Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thomas Henry Huxley wrote, “To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall.” An all too true statement about most of us, excepting children whose innate curiosity beckons them to run around to peer into the artworks’ faces. Fortunately for the rest of us, Hannah Anderson and her husband Nathan, illustrator of her new book, Turning of Days: Lessons from Nature, Season, and Spirit stand in the gap between nature and nature’s God pointing us to both. They offer seasonal lessons of what it looks like to turn our faces to the works of goodness, beauty and truth in nature given to us by our Creator and reveal more about Him and ourselves than we are aware.
This collection of essays of her observations of nature and theological connections is ordered around the seasons. You will learn about spring peepers, pruning, and hawks’ migration habits. You will read of God’s providence, memento mori, and kronos, the fulfillment of time. You will see detail illustrations showing the same attentiveness.
In an online conversation with Hannah, she writes that she and Nathan have “shared a particular disposition or awareness of [the] natural world.” I share this disposition due in large part to spending much of my childhood exploring the woodlands, creeks, and streams that bordered my home and to a church that offered me a chance to read and learn much of the Bible. The connections come somewhat naturally when you watch a hawk soaring over an open field and then read in Scripture about “rising up on eagles wings”. Fortunately for us throughout the book she models for us how to learn more about what we see and to read the Bible with those observations in mind. In a final essay she gives suggestions how to place our ourselves, so our attention is directed to observe nature well. We will not learn this disposition if we will not place ourselves as creature among creation willing to submit to its teaching.

I received a copy of the book for an honest review.

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Eyes to See

Flowers opening timelapse from David de los Santos Gil on Vimeo.
read more about this:  http://www.diyphotography.net/9-months-50000-photos-mesmerizing-time-lapse-opening-flowers/

From that moment in elementary school when I watched my first time lapse film, I've been hooked on this type of viewing experience. It shows so much of life that is imperceptible to the naked eye. Of course that love has expanded to many other ways to view our universe, whether it is through a  microscope, telescope, or photo editing software. All of these give me an opportunity to view what seems hidden, mundane and refuses to let me take things in this life for granted. The wonder and beauty as the mystery is unveiled cause gratitude and moves us to worship

 
This Place

This place I can stop for awhile 
watching 
bluebirds' visits
during winter's barrenness; 
storms roll in, 
and through;
pastures green 
from spring's storms 
that 
otherwise 
threaten life; 
another day's sun 
sets 
in the west.

Haiku for rain

Smell softly spring rain
Calm the raging dragon mind
Beget peace for all.

These are thy wonders, Lord of love

Music link below

The Flower

 By George Herbert

How fresh, oh Lord, how sweet and clean

Are thy returns! even as the flowers in spring;

         To which, besides their own demean,

The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.

                      Grief melts away

                      Like snow in May,

         As if there were no such cold thing.

         Who would have thought my shriveled heart

Could have recovered greenness? It was gone

         Quite underground; as flowers depart

To see their mother-root, when they have blown,

                      Where they together

                      All the hard weather,

         Dead to the world, keep house unknown.

         These are thy wonders, Lord of power,

Killing and quickening, bringing down to hell

         And up to heaven in an hour;

Making a chiming of a passing-bell.

                      We say amiss

                      This or that is:

         Thy word is all, if we could spell.

         Oh that I once past changing were,

Fast in thy Paradise, where no flower can wither!

         Many a spring I shoot up fair,

Offering at heaven, growing and groaning thither;

                      Nor doth my flower

                      Want a spring shower,

         My sins and I joining together.

         But while I grow in a straight line,

Still upwards bent, as if heaven were mine own,

         Thy anger comes, and I decline:

What frost to that? what pole is not the zone

                      Where all things burn,

                      When thou dost turn,

         And the least frown of thine is shown?

         And now in age I bud again,

After so many deaths I live and write;

         I once more smell the dew and rain,

And relish versing. Oh, my only light,

                      It cannot be

                      That I am he

         On whom thy tempests fell all night.

         These are thy wonders, Lord of love,

To make us see we are but flowers that glide;

         Which when we once can find and prove,

Thou hast a garden for us where to bide;

                      Who would be more,

                      Swelling through store,

         Forfeit their Paradise by their pride.

(if you do not have a Spotify account, Spring I can be heard by clicking on link)

Autumn trees

"Autumn trees ask me not to worry.  They, like Jesus, suggest trust rather than worry.  So often in autumn I want to go lean my head against a tree and ask what it feels like to lose so much, to be so empty, so detached,...and then simply to stand and wait for God's refilling....It isn't easy.  But it's possible."  -Macrina Wiederkehr

In the fall at the base of the stem of the leaf, the abscission layer begins to close off. This is what enables the colors of the leaf to begin to show and how the tree protects itself from sap loss during the winter when light and water are in shorter supply and external conditions are harsher. But that is not all that is happening. A new leaf in the form of a terminal bud enclosed in scales develops.  It's fall's promise of new life in the spring. And in the spring those scales fall off ... leaving scars...but the new leaf was protected and it does grow. You've had to go through a harsh season of life, but God will remove the scales and redeem this season and cause you to flourish.

HT: Melissa, who shared the quote above and allows us to see her struggle and wait with her.

The Seen and the Unseen

I've reference MM here often. And this post in particular was poignant. I have so many wonderful memories of museums, nature centers and nature study during my childhood years. I was also blessed to live at the edge of 60 acres of woodlands and creeks, part of which my grandfather or PawPaw as we call him, rented to tend various animals and to plant large gardens. It was mine to roam. Mine to observe, to learn about and from nature in all it forms. It provided me a place and a way to learn to listen carefully to and understand the poetry of Robert Frost and find that others could express what I knew and felt but had not the words for. Above all, I was its child to teach about the seen and the unseen and how they both are the creation and expression, and a delight-filled gift, of a strong, loving Father.

Eagle Watcing-

Double click on the photos to see the detail.

We took a little drive today along the the Great River Road
to take advantage of the warmer temperatures




and do a little eagle watching.