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April 15.
Across the years, a date full of profound events that have shaped the future.
The birth of Leonardo da Vinci.
The death of Lincoln.
The sinking of the Titanic.
The start of the Tiananmen Square demonstration.
Black Friday.
The bombing of the Boston Marathon.
It is also the day that William Wordsworth took a stroll through a lakeside bed of daffodils, inspiring this poem:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed?and gazed?but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
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While I watched the events in Boston unfold in the news, these 2 doves
perched in a tree outside my window, resting from the snowstorm.
I share this image of peace with you, as we are all trying to understand what happened in Boston.
It is a good time to pull out our fabric, needle and thread, and make
something with our hands.
When the world has gone crazy, we find our peace in our handwork.
Each stitch is a prayer for peace, a question asked, an affirmation of
the thread that runs through all of Life and connects us all.
Wishing Peace and Healing to the people of Boston, and to those who have suffered a loss.
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Thank you, Luana, for quoting that beautiful Wordworth poem of the dancing daffodils, which I learned in school many, many years ago and loved so much. It gives us such a peaceful feeling.
I just wish there was a peaceful feeling I could give to those victims in Boston; in lieu of that, I can only offer my prayers for their healing. May God watch over them, and help us end this insanity.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, for the poem, and for the photo. From one more quilter
Thank you for this very moving tribute. In the midst of such horror, we must try to remember the beauty and good in this flawed world.
Thank you. I found your website by a search in Google and signed for emails, but I didn?t suspect that the persons behind the lovelly patterns could talk to my heart so simply. The world is one, not separeted by any political boundary. So I learned my english near Boston when I lived as a child in US. From Brasil I thank you for the snowbirds and wish this world has less “hurting people” and more poets.
I enjoy reading your blogs and I like the way you present ideas for thought. Thank you for a reflective way to view this sad day. I grew up in a town along the Marathon route. Watching the runners pass through the town center on Patriot’s Day is a childhood memory. Your thoughts, and the photo, have helped me with perspective and grief.
Thank you for a peaceful moment in the chaos
How kind and thoughtful you are to remember those whose lives are permanently changed by that terrible event. As a native Bostonian, by heart aches for the victims.
Thanks Luana. Mondays are my quilt day and I spent three hours in quiet bliss, stitching away. Then I turned on the news. I spent another three hours stitching and sending good vibes to Boston. Peace to all. Take care, Byrd.
Thank God for posts like yours. A peaceful thought to remind me that there is sanity somewhere in this world. Thank you.
Thank you for your wonderful and loving thoughts for all who are hurting. Not just those in Boston but everywhere.
Daffodils are my favorite flower and I had not this poem before. I think will become one of my favorite.
God Bless.
Thanks, Luana, for reminding us about the daffodils. It was a wonderful moment in the midst of all the chaos.
LeAnne
I second your sentiments totally. In this world of terror perpetrated by a few individuals it is comforting to look to God’s nature/handiwork for peace and solitude. Also, thank you for your daffodil poem. My Dad was not a poetical man, but this, by far, was his favorite of them all. Have a wonderful and blessed future.
Thank you Louana for the beautiful images; those of the doves and those conjured from Wordsworth’s eloquent poem. You have a wonderful way of reminding us of the ties that bind us together during these moments of loss and pain, healing and peace.
Bless you!
Michelle Wyman
Hi. Often when commercial e-letters arrive, I don’t take time to read them. This time I did. It is beautiful. Thank you Luana. And you are so right about the meditation of stitch. I hope it is healing for everyone.
My heart goes out to all those lost and hurt, to their families and to the emergency services and caregivers at the terrible event in Boston.
What a barbaric, cowardly act it was!
BTW. As someone in UK living in the town of Wordsworth’s birth (Cockermouth, Cumbria)it is lovely to see how far away his poetry is appreciated.
Luana, as I read your Blog regarding the Boston trauma and quoted the poem of Wordsworth I had one thought, “How wonderful,careing and sensitive you are to the feelings of so many people who are in pain over the Boston Attack on so many innocent people. THANK YOU. I marvel at people who are like you.