Catholic Family Vignettes

Red, white and blue dragonflies. Crawdads and frogs. Sunlight glinting upon the ripples of the rushing creek. And a couple of "intrepid" snake hunters!

The temperature was 94 degrees and the coolness of the woods and creek beckoned! A joyful day, as we had the creek entirely to ourselves for nearly 3 hours. A couple of families came down, briefly surveyed the water, admonished their children not to get wet and left.

So sad. They look, but they never explore...and what a place to explore!


We returned home around 3:00 p.m., having missed lunch, and quickly assembled egg salad sandwiches which we ate in the air-conditioned living room, while watching (crikeys!) the Crocodile Hunter on VHS.

Yeah...Steve-o...God rest his soul...

It seemed the perfect way to end the day, particularly after the two boys did their best to provoke a snake... Read more!

The Path to the Woods

Madison Cawein

Its friendship and its carelessness
Did lead me many a mile,
Through goat's-rue, with its dim caress,
And pink and pearl-white smile;
Through crowfoot, with its golden lure,
And promise of far things,
And sorrel with its glance demure
And wide-eyed wonderings.

It led me with its innocence,
As childhood leads the wise,
With elbows here of tattered fence,
And blue of wildflower eyes;
With whispers low of leafy speech,
And brook-sweet utterance;
With bird-like words of oak and beech,
And whisperings clear as Pan's.

It led me with its childlike charm,
As candor leads desire,
Now with a clasp of blossomy arm,
A butterfly kiss of fire;
Now with a toss of tousled gold,
A barefoot sound of green,
A breath of musk, of mossy mold,
With vague allurements keen.

It led me with remembered things
Into an old-time vale,
Peopled with faëry glimmerings,
And flower-like fancies pale;
Where fungous forms stood, gold and gray,
Each in its mushroom gown,
And, roofed with red, glimpsed far away,
A little toadstool town.

It led me with an idle ease,
A vagabond look and air,
A sense of ragged arms and knees
In weeds grown everywhere;
It led me, as a gypsy leads,
To dingles no one knows,
With beauty burred with thorny seeds,
And tangled wild with rose.

It led me as simplicity
Leads age and its demands,
With bee-beat of its ecstasy,
And berry-stained touch of hands;
With round revealments, puff-ball white,
Through rents of weedy brown,
And petaled movements of delight
In roseleaf limb and gown.

It led me on and on and on,
Beyond the Far Away,
Into a world long dead and gone, —
The world of Yesterday:
A faëry world of memory,
Old with its hills and streams,
Wherein the child I used to be
Still wanders with his dreams.

May God bless little boys...big ones, too! May they never lose their sense of wonder, curiosity and adventure.

I am daily reminded of the great privilege God has so graciously bestowed upon us, as we raise these wonderful children.

Picking flowers and vegetables, walking along the edge of the woods, playing badminton and horseshoes...a day of simple pleasures. Read more!

Lately the sky has been so...
and amazingly...
Have you ever seen anything this...
I long for the cool, summer evenings. Dusk is upon us and the sky provides an unparallelled show of color. The moon, constellations and many planets slowly began to dot the sky as the light fades.

"For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale and tree and flow'r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise."

--taken from For the Beauty of the Earth

Goodnight and God bless! Read more!

The Path that leads to Nowhere
Corinne Roosevelt Robinson

There's a path that leads to Nowhere
In a meadow that I know,
Where an inland island rises
And the stream is still and slow;
There it wanders under willows
And beneath the silver green
Of the birches' silent shadows
Where the early violets lean.

Other pathways lead to Somewhere,
But the one I love so well
Had no end and no beginning —
Just the beauty of the dell,
Just the windflowers and the lilies
Yellow striped as adder's tongue,
Seem to satisfy my pathway
As it winds their sweets among.

There I go to meet the Springtime,
When the meadow is aglow,
Marigolds amid the marshes, —
And the stream is still and slow. —
There I find my fair oasis,
And with care-free feet I tread
For the pathway leads to Nowhere,
And the blue is overhead!

All the ways that lead to Somewhere
Echo with the hurrying feet
Of the Struggling and the Striving,
But the way I find so sweet
Bids me dream and bids me linger,
Joy and Beauty are its goal, —
On the path that leads to Nowhere
I have sometimes found my soul! Read more!