Exhortation of the Dawn

Happy Groundhog’s Day! It is always a special day for me. My parents were married on Ground Hog’s Day. I used to tease them about such a romantic choice for the occasion. I suppose Valentine’s Day was out of the question. To each couple their own, I suppose.

I decided to take a brief break from my Literary Texas blog posts on this bleak February day. We are iced in a bit where I am and are only getting out to feed and hay the cows. Yesterday the cows were rather frisky despite the cold—maybe because of it. So, I thought I’d try for something uplifting and ran across this ancient poem by Kalidasa, Indian poet and playwright, as well as a picture of one of our summer butterflies. I sometimes gave this poem to high school seniors upon their graduation. Today, I suppose we’d call it a poem about living in the moment. It goes to show that “nothing is new under the sun.” C.S. Lewis once wrote “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” That is my mantra lately. The poem has a bit of that in its vein as well.

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.

The Bliss of Growth
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!
    

Books I am currently reading:

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy. My nephew-in-law suggested it to me at Thanksgiving, and I finally began it as soon as I finished the ones I was reading at the time. I’m about two-thirds finished and am really enjoying it. I am surprised as I am not a big fan of fantasy or what is often called speculative fiction. As I’ve indicated before, I can be a bit of a muggle. I decided I needed to stretch a bit. Glad I did.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I know. I know. You can’t believe I hadn’t already read it long ago. Again, fantasy if not my favorite genre. Even as a librarian, I sometimes avoided certain books, not because I absolutely didn’t want to read them but because there were so many, many more I did want to read.

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler. Anne Tyler is perhaps my favorite contemporary writer. She writes mainstream/literary novels that have a strong family/relationship orientation. They are deep, in my opinion, and thought-provoking while simply good stories. I ran across this one at a library sale, and I hadn’t read it.

May you have a lovely day wherever you are. If it’s cold and icy as it is here, I’m hoping you have the luxury of curling up with a good book.