Grapes and Bees

Spring is definitely here. Yesterday afternoon it was eighty degrees out. In the grocery store, grapes are suddenly affordable again. Bow and I are taking advantage of the opportunity,

He was grunting with pleasure when he had his bunch of grapes for breakfast yesterday.

Bow also spent many hours outdoors on his bench, while I roamed the grounds spying all the sudden transformations that the warm weather has wrought.

The hyacinth by the front door is blooming.

The peach trees in the orchard have opened their blossoms. And no sooner had they bloomed, than they began to attract busy little bees.

Bees began to swarm by the fruit trees.

They seem to know exactly what flowers are available.

Some flowers, however, are more popular than others. For instance, though the new trees that were planted only last fall are also blooming, they do not attract any bees.

And although we might suppose that all the flowers growing on the same tree or bush are equal. no such equality is to be found in nature. Even on the forsythia bush, which is now in full bloom, some flowers just seem to stand out.

What is it about this particular bloom that makes it dance in front of me, as if shouting: "Look at me! Look at me! I am different from all the others!"

No two mountains have the same height and no two stalks of grain are equal, as the great Russian writer, Alexei Tolstoy, once wrote. (No, not the author of War and Peace. That was somebody else) There is no such thing as absolute, factual equality. Which brings me to my new book, Our Lady of Kaifeng: Courtyard of the Happy Way.  It has been published, and people all over the world are receiving copies even as I write.

Order from Amazon

My friend Julia just recently got her copy.

This is a good time to order my new book. And if you do, it will make it that much easier for me and Bow to buy more grapes to have for breakfast!

Breakfast Before Dawn

The days are getting shorter now. The autumnal equinox is behind us. Last night was the Harvest Moon.  In Taiwan they are celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival. In Israel they are celebrating Sukkoth. But here in the Ozarks, it's just another day.

You would think that we would get up when the sun does. That is the natural thing to do. But in a world full of alarm clocks, and with school buses that children have to catch, we get into a certain pattern, and it's hard to break it, even on the weekend. So it is that this morning it was very dark when we had breakfast, Bow and I.

Last night, I took a picture of the harvest moon shining above our house.  Most years I would not have noticed it, or having noticed it, I might not have placed it, thinking "My, the moon is bright tonight," but not quite remembering why.

But since my book, Our Lady of Kaifeng, has just come out, and I have been writing little articles to promote it, I could not remain unaware of the significance of that moon shining over my house.

For Bow, however, this is just another day when we have breakfast before dawn. The grapes are delicious, and all is right with the world.