Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
As winter's austere power begins to fade, we notice the first signs of vigor and life returning to the world: delicate crocuses pushing through the damp earth; frogs croaking in the barely thawed ponds; the year's first warm breeze on our faces. These first sure signs of spring bolster our spirits and remind us of the eternal cycle of death and rebirth, and also--more poignantly--of the steady march of time and our own advancing years. With each successive spring, it seems, we cherish the promise of renewed life more and more. These thoughtfully chosen writings, poems and meditations--from Robert Frost, Lisa Couturier, William Blake and Lady Sarashina to the eighth-century Chinese poet Tu Fu and many others--both celebrate spring's re-emergence of life and evoke the season's delicate balance of growth and decay, youth and maturity, innocence and experience.
Synopsis
Explore the rich vibrancy of summer and reflect on how nature teaches us to value time--in this collection of reflections by our greatest writers.
A season of both growth and of stillness, of hard work in the garden and of relaxing in the cool of the mountains, summer is a celebratory time. Every day matters, says summer. Look around you. Life is starting up again after a long winter and spring, and we find ourselves in a world filled with creatures and plants and shimmers of heat on the subway, with backyard cookouts and ice cream trucks jingling through the neighborhood.
This collection of powerful, stirring pieces from a wealth of sources--ranging from poems composed in eighth-century China to letters from a pioneer woman in the American West, from the Declaration of Independence to Ray Bradbury's musings on childhood summers--invites us all to fully experience the rich and bountiful spirituality of summer.