Amaryllis

This flower has just bloomed in our kitchen, and I've been watching it since it was just a brown, cracked bulb a few weeks ago. For some reason, I've been really excited to watch it's daily growth. I love that, in this manufactured world, things still grow of their own accord, in their own time. Life from life. When I did my Qur'anic study, my passage described God as light from light, and it amazes me how the natural things of this world come together so perfectly with no human involvement.

I've also been reading a lot lately. I've picked up a couple of Anne Lamott books, and I love her because she makes me laugh out loud when I read and she packs in great spiritual insights. Not too many authors can do that. Neither of these other ones I read were as good as Traveling Mercies, but she's always worth a read. I re-read Les Miserables as well; I love love love that story. Hugo writes about sin, guilt, and grace in a much more matter-of-fact way than I see much nowadays, and it's beautiful.

And now that I'm thinking about the amaryllis, I have the "I Care Not for These Ladies" poem we read in Early Brit Lit in my head:

I care not for these ladies /That must be woo'd and pray'd

Give me sweet Amaryllis /The wanton country maid...

And when we court and kiss/ She cries 'Forsooth, let go!'

But when we come where comfort is/ She never will say no.

It's not always a good thing to have the memory for poems that I do...now I'll have that in my head all day.