Excerpt from Pine Hills Bird Notes

Long before the birth of Odin Mute was thunderous ocean's roar Stillness o'er the huge earth brooding, Strand was none, nor rocky shore.

Imir sat in lonely sadness, Watching o'er the fruitless globe; Never morning beamed with gladness; Never eve with dewy robe. OR ages earth turned a hard, barren face to the sun. There were no birds, no flowers, no soul life. God had made the earth but had not created man. Everywhere silence reigned, save when broken by the extreme throes of creative nature. Ages passed, and With shadows cool and sweet, With silence like a prayer, Breathing, brooding everywhere, man was created. The once sterile earth blos somed, fruited; and over all the sun serenely shone. Happily were man's days cast with sing ing birds and flowering fields, for through the divine ways of nature he should seek and find the higher life the human soul that within him ran. Thus the love of nature so widely spread as to become almost universal, calls Come forth and bring with you a heart That watches and receives. No barriers cramp or crowd in nature's realm. Her fields are Open and far-reaching, and the harvest sure and plentiful. Her wild bird chorusis making every grove a temple and every sun rise a worship. She links the human soul to her work, and man rises to kinship with his creator.

Nature is a generous teacher. The study is not burdensome nor difficult. She demands no scientific training. She makes it possible to know the flowers without botanical aid, and all her creative work without the hard climb up the steep cliffs of science. She asks only that man see and hear the things God has given to make the world and life beautiful. They who have the way of seeing and hearing these God-given things stand at the open gate of the King's highway, heirs to a source of happiness others know not of.

It is beyond man to know why we are made happy by the things seen and heard in nature, nor can man explain the many and varied feelings that course through the heart when we approach nature with loving appreciation. A simple song from the hedgerow, a comely flower from the wild will often give thoughts too deep for care less comprehension thoughts that lead to a closer fellowship with nature and nature's God.

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