Refulgence…

Well, there’s a fifty-cent word if I ever used one! I first encountered it in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famed Divinity School Address of 1838:
In this refulgent summer, it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds burst, the meadow is spotted with fire and gold in the tint of flowers.
As I step out onto the patio, about to tackle the weeds taking over the herb garden, Mr. Emerson’s phrase comes to mind. The air is hot, a little humid. Insects buzz about. I watch seven or eight small white butterflies dance gracefully through the catnip blossoms. The sun is shining brightly as a few clouds drift overhead in the hazy blue sky. In many ways, a perfect summer day!
Indeed, it is a luxury to breathe deeply this abundant life. Soon, the tomatoes will ripen and the peppers will grow fat. And I write this after spending the past week thinking, listening, preaching and breathing sermons. What Emerson said to those young men on that July day ushered in a revolution in religion, and served as a guiding principle in that course now completed: The true preacher can be known by this, that he deals out to the people his life, — life passed through the fire of thought.
Yet on this refulgent day, I am no less stirred by his charge to those 19th century ministers than I am by the joys (and drudgery) of the backyard gardens in July and August. Both demand my awareness, my attention and my whole self. For now, though, I will give myself over to the luxury of tending these green and growing things. And sipping a tall, lemony iced tea now and then.
I know I am lucky to have these moments, this respite from the day-to-day. The world, with all its cares and woes, is not far from my elbow as I bend to pull one more weed. To draw that breath of life is, indeed, a luxury. Gratitude fills my heart as I know I will turn from this orderly patch of earth to wrestle life’s greater concerns soon enough.
May the rest of your summer days be a balanced combination of work and play, of reflection and action. more soon…