Pines and Prayer

     This past week I had the opportunity of attending the "Wood Shavings Day" event at Hartwick Pines State Park, a beautiful 10,000 acre park in Northern MI. As the name implies the festival was primarily an exploration of the rustic logging era of the 1800s. Blacksmiths, woodcarvers, and people selling wooden knickknacks abounded, each dressed in semi-authentic historical dress. Dense smoke drifted upward from a period sawmill run by an old steam engine. The clang of metal striking metal and the drone of old country music filled the air in a beautiful cacophony. Giant white pines reached to the sky, shouting their defiance against the loggers below. Modern day surveyors waxed eloquent of ancient mapping techniques and tools. Life returned,but for a moment, to the rustic days of yore when life was hard, but the future was bright. After perusing the stalls for a while, trying my hand at blacksmith puzzles, and watching the wood-chips fly from the old sawmill, I wandered off into the old growth forest to marvel at God's handiwork. It was amusing actually, how small these old growth "giants" seemed compared to the massive doug firs I'd seen in WA and the Redwoods in CA. Beautiful, and almost elegant they appeared to me, like the buttresses of a cathedral reaching toward heaven. In addition to wandering through the old growth forest (A true treasure of Northern MI) I also crossed the road to visit the Au Sable River, one of the healthiest and most beautiful streams I had ever set foot in. Dozens of shining damselflies darted above the river's surface in a stunning dance of beauty and light. Small clusters of striped fish darted past us, their glistening scales a whirl of red, silver, and yellow. All nature it seemed was part of a glorious dance; a wondrous and diverse cadence fit only for a King.

     A short prayer set in the small chapel of Hartwick Pines expresses far better than me how I felt that day. 

"Nature's Prayer"
Our Heavenly Father Creator of all that is nature. We humbly come to you in the midst of nature's splendor to thank you that as Americans we are free to worship as we please, work as we please, and move about as we please to enjoy all that is nature....It's mountains, it's hills, it's valleys, it's lakes, it's streams, and the living things that dwell therein; We pray unto you that someday the world may be at peace and all men be free to enjoy nature's abundance. We ask you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we be guided to protect this priceless heritage which we in America are privileged to enjoy. Amen
                                                                                -Anonymous

        

 The Au Sable River

The Chapel in the Pines

 Nature's Prayer

 The Cross Window

A Poem I Found

I found this short poem scribbled in the back of an 1888 copy of "Leaves and Flowers or On Object Lessons in Botany", a very old 10-14 year old school book by Dr. Alphonso Wood on plant identification that I picked up for eight dollars at a book sale, and found its simplicity and tone immensely enjoyable.

When I am lonely and discontent
I wait for a sunny day to pitch my tent
And then I rejoice for the day's gone by,
When I did nothing but weep and sigh.
                                   -Anonymous

The preface to the book also contains a beautiful little paragraph about the purpose of studying Creation and specifically botany which I figured I would share here.
"If, then, it be desirable to preoccupy the minds of our children with controlling ideas of purity, refinement, and moral beauty,-with exalted thoughts of God, habits of mental activity, strength of judgement, and decision of character; and, moreover, to do all this by means of a study whose path, in a double sense, is strown with flowers, then is the study of botany desirable." - Alphonso Wood, 1863

P.S. For those of you actually reading my blog I would really enjoy some comments every once in a while so I can tell if you actually enjoy reading it.

A brief update on my life wanderings and happenings.

     So in the last several weeks a lot of interesting things have happened. One event I was part of, however, happened quite some time ago and thus deserves to be mentioned first. On June 14 (Last month I realize I'm really getting behind. Still getting used to this whole blog thingy) I had the opportunity and enormous privilege of being a groomsmen in my cousin Phil's and my good friend Nicole's wedding. It was, needless to say, a  truly beautiful thing to see these two people, who I both love dearly, united in love (I was literally crying when Nicole started walking down the aisle). On top of all the greatness of wedding, I also got to wear these awesome purple socks, get a new tailored suit, and eat a lot of really good food cooked by my mom (Who, if you don't happen to know, happens to be the best cook in the world). Seeing extended family from all over the world come together to celebrate was also an added bonus, particularly reuniting with those friends I hadn't seen in a long time (i.e. Greg and Alanna, Uncle Steve, Steven, Bethany, Mike, kids, etc.). Below are a few pictures from the wedding, all taken by photographers extraordinaire Kathy  and Tim Hall. I apologize for any degradation in quality due to the internet. Note: If any of you are expecting tons of wedding pictures, think again. I'm not pinterest.
    

 Bridal Party

Philip and Nicole Dudley

     Unfortunately the time passed much to quickly and within three days I was already flying back to Au Sable, that beautiful place nestled amidst the red pines, to continue identifying macroinvertebrates (See previous posts if you don't know what a macroinvertebrate is). Today I finally made it through all 156 or so of my insects identifying them down to the genus level. Now comes the long, somewhat annoying, but ultimately rewarding part of doing the stats and writing up a professional scientific report. I have already gotten started on the paper, but much remains to be done and little time (Five or so weeks) to do it in. Anyway asides from working on the research, yesterday was the Fourth of July (As you probably knew, unless you weren't paying attention). Au Sable staff and families, consequently put on a wonderful picnic on the beach of Big Twin Lake (Look it up if you're wondering where it is) full of wonderful food such as grass fed beef, salad with fresh strawberries, and local ice cream with cherries in it. I played so much volleyball last night my back was sore the next day (Need to learn to stop diving for every ball). Anyway the firework display put on around the lake was truly remarkable and may have even rivaled the display last year at the secret base on Fox Island (I realize only a few people will get this reference, but it's still true).
     This afternoon I had the enjoyable and quite exhausting opportunity of going butterfly catching. For about an hour or so I ran through grass, weeds, and tall ferns searching for elusive butterflies for the Butterfly Day going on tomorrow at the institute (http://ausable.org/), and it was incredible. Despite the itchiness of the legs, the sweat dripping down my back, and the unrelenting heat, I felt incredibly happy coming back with a sole butterfly. How often do you get an excuse to go running around the countryside swinging a net back and forth like a lunatic? Tomorrow I am running a 5k (if I can will myself to get up early for it). Not sure how much will be running and how much will be walking. We'll see. Anyway, hopefully this post has not been entirely boring. Should post something else in the near future. Also sorry for the sheer number of parentheses in this post. I like them and have a tendency to use them as often as possible even when they are entirely unnecessary (Such as here).