In the Bleak Mid-Winter
. . . Love endures
I saw that the ice on Brandywine Creek was breaking up, so I grabbed my camera to capture the flux. The sky was still cloudy, but after a chilly start to my walk, clouds began to part and let light in. Several keeper shots got me thinking about the paintings of Andrew Wyeth, and then, owing to the mood of his images and mine, about portions from the following two hymns, one that is read and the other sung:
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
The second excerpt is from Christina Rossetti's Christmas Carol, In the Bleak Midwinter, written in 1872, with my bracketed changes for updating her lyric to the present:
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, [now and] long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold . . . nor earth sustain;
[Ice will crack and float away when Love comes to reign].
Hope the birds in your picture do indeed have resilience in 2025. In Asheville, NC, some of the ducks in public waters have died in the past week or two and have been tested positive for bird flu.
Tom. These photos are stunning and bittersweet as we remember the Brandywine from Portland.