Morning has broken
Like the first morning;
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.

The blackbirds have returned! I heard them singing in the trees earlier as I took my morning walk. Their songs fill me with joy because they surely announce the coming of spring. I’m mesmerized by their invisible calls,  musical waterfalls cascading from beyond the tree tops.

I saw a mourning dove perched on a neighbor’s roof calling out over the meadows to another dove elsewhere. They called back and forth to each other, refrains and echoes like sonnets, ignoring my eavesdropping on them. A flock of geese honked loudly overhead and the always present crows broke through with their own particular raucous noise. A small  downy woodpecker  rat-a-tatted on a fallen tree branch. A swirl of blue told me that the jays were home again. I’m sure there was a robin or two but I did not see any yet.

In the Song of Songs, the Lover  promises the Beloved that a new season is  close at hand. .

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; . Songs 6:2,11

The flowers in New Meadows haven’t appeared quite yet, but I have heard the songs of birds all around me. Green tufts of grass have sprouted on the roadway and a few inches of narcissi leaves poke out around my house’s perimeter. Soon the blossoming and the flowering will also come and my life will be blessed with another greening time. How can one not but praise God who renews the face of the earth season to season and pours out His love upon us? Be it birdsong or trees swelling with buds, the snow melts for “morning has broken, and the blackbirds have spoken.” The lovely old Methodist hymn reminds us that birds and flowers and mankind are continuously being blessed by our Creator. As He was then, He still is now and we who are His Beloved praise Him!

Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing
Fresh from the Word!  

“Morning Has Broken “By Eleanor Farjeon