Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and spring, for the air, the water, the verdure, and the song of birds.” – Carl von Linnaeus

All summer long I have used a lovely screen saver on my computer, a painting of a grape vine spreading across a terra-cotta wall that has the above words at the bottom. This morning it suddenly came to me that recently I have been doing what many in South Texas are doing – lamenting the drought and heat and enduring summer with little grace.  I have not exactly been blessing the summer and the air even though the verdure and birdsong and water are most certainly noticed everyday with gratitude.  I read the words slowly again, and wondered as I often do when absorbing an artwork of words, about the person who wrote them.

Thinking he must certainly be a poet, I Googled Carl von Linnaeus and to my surprise found that he is credited with originating our system of classifying and naming living things  – a man of organization and systems who recognized beauty in the work of Creation. He was the son of a Lutheran pastor who is described as “an intelligent gardener.”  I smile as I recognize a touch of Genesis here, thinking of the “garden of Sweden and a man who was named Carl but took up Adam’s work of naming.

I am thankful for the reminder.  And on this day, one more of triple digit heat, longing for rain in the worst drought in South Texas history, I bless the air and the birds and the beauty of summer. Fresh breeze blows over my soul.  Verdure.