Tuesday 20 May 2014

Snapshot Muse #18 - Abide With Me


The La Salle River lazily winds its way through our colony. I always find it interesting that our colony was named after the Elm River, a mile and a half south of our place and not the La Salle, which is right here. Could there have been some confusion about the names? Or perhaps the French name wasn't as appealing.

 In any case, for the most part it's a beautiful river, except for the huge patches of reeds and cattails, in places, that nearly choke off it's flow and algae littering it in late summer. At times a family of ducks spends most of the day here. At night, lightning bugs are sometimes seen using the river as a dance floor. I have many fond childhood memories of playing in this river, or floating on it in a boat on care-free summer days. In winter it would be our skating rink or we'd slide on to it from the hill right beside it. I'm reminded of a beautiful children's book, written by a fellow Hutterite, Herman Stahl, and illustrated by his lovely and talented wife, Cynthia: "Flowing Through the Seasons".

Today, I enjoy walking along the La Salle in the evening, especially when everything around it is a lush green, bursting with life. Serenity at its best - makes me want to sing, or hear 'Abide With Me.' I dream about someone standing beside the river, perhaps under that old elm tree, playing this song on bag-pipes. I love the beautiful, haunting sounds of bagpipes! Sadly, it's very rare to hear them live... maybe my next Europe trip should include Scotland.

I invite you to turn on the music below, rest your eyes on the serene La Salle and the shiny reflections, imagine that it's just before sunset - stay a while at this peaceful place and dream with me... Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide... Aaahhh, Heavenly!







4 comments:

  1. What a beautiful post, especially with the bagpipes included. Thank you.

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  2. This was just a beautiful post! What lovely memories to have! As the world evolves and children totally rely on computers and electronics, I don't know that they will be able to say they have such lovely, beautiful memories! Thank you for sharing this...just stunning!

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  3. Thank you, Katie and Felicia. I appreciate your kind words! I agree with you,Felicia, as children while away the hours in front of a screen, they are missing out on so much, especially spending time enjoying nature and learning from it.

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  4. ...and yes, making memories. I doubt very much that screen time will make for precious memories, probably more regrets, when they'll try to tear their own kids away from tech toys.

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