Tonight, a trio of dolphins danced, in the marina just down from the cottage. (See video below.) Earlier,
a couple of miles away, a great blue heron soared, then settled, then perched atop an oak tree, surveying his domain. Down the road from the heron, a family of whooping cranes, two adults and their chick, fed quietly in a field they shared with cattle.
My spirits lifted. My heart soared, simply because these creatures exist, they are themselves.
For Christmas, Jan gave me a wonderful set of lectures, on CD, about the British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. In his poem, "As Kingfishers Catch Fire," Hopkins celebrates the "thisness" of every thing:
Each hung bell
... finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
....
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
And so, the dolphins dance and dive, the great birds soar, crying "This is me! For this I came." Each celebrates its own identity, its God-given being.
For Hopkins, priest as well as poet, this "thisness" of each thing was not only God's gracious gift, it was a channel of God's grace. Christ, through whom the world was made, is part of every creature and revealed in each one's essence. Thus, Hopkins continues, the just person
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is-
Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
Tonight, I saw Christ playing in dancing dolphins and soaring herons. In my joy, I pray that others may see Christ in me, in my true essence.
-Bill
Source: Joseph J Feeney, SJ, PhD, "Gerard Manley Hopkins: Magician of Words, Sounds, Images, and Insights," Now You Know Media, 2014, Lecture 5.
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