'S Wonderful

By Paul Roberts

‘S wonderful, ‘s marvelous,

You should care for me

Well, ‘s awful nice, ‘s paradise

‘S what I love to see 

Spent time away with Carol this last weekend, nothing on my plate but time the last several days. I was accompanied by Cleo the Keeshond, Rainer Rilke the poet, Lee Reich the Gardener, Eugene Peterson the pastor, and Frank Peretti the novelist. Let’s see if I can touch on some the highlights of my time with each one of those individuals.

Clearly, Carol takes top billing in that list. It’s wonderful, it’s marvelous to spend uninterrupted time with her. Reading with her, praying with her, talking with her, and even not talking with her. Staring at stars, watching them light up one by one as the sky darkens. Reaching for her hand on the steep parts at the end of the 8 mile hike, knowing that she was watching out for me at those scary high cliff places. She’s awful nice, it’s paradise, she’s what I love to see.

Cleo, what a trooper. She doesn’t do heights either, or at least the heights involved in getting herself up and down the circular staircase that led to the bedroom at our cabin in the pines. That meant I got to carry my little 35 pound doggie up and down the staircase to her kennel each morning and evening. She did a great job off leash on all of our hikes - waiting patiently when we fell behind her pace, not going too far off the trail. And all the chickens that were around the farm where we stayed still have all their feathers!

I spent time with Rainer Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God. Deep stuff. Good stuff. A thanks to Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy for the thoughtful translation from German into English. One line that may stick with me: I love the dark hours of my being.

Thanks to Lee Reich for penning The Ever Curious Gardener. This is the second of my blog posts where his writing has been featured. Lee and Frank Peretti came together in an interesting way for me this weekend, as I pondered the possible connections between Lee’s discussion of the usefulness of a “cover crop” in a garden, and Frank’s incorporation of the necessity of “prayer cover” in his novel This Present Darkness. Maybe I can work that into my next sermon.

Overall, a great five days/four nights away. Puts me in the mood to sing Gershwin tunes…to Carol, to God, to Cleo…to life.

You've made my life so glamorous

You can't blame me for feeling amorous

Oh, 's wonderful, 's wonderful, 's marvelous

That you should care for me.

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