My Favorite Hymn...

I love this time of year, it's not yet so hot that I fear the outdoors and things are beginning to really come to life. Our Japanese Magnolia has been in full bloom and is now sprouting a full head of leaves.

The bougainvillea has an abundance of beautiful, showy blooms. And our first Calla Lilies have bloomed.

It's time to feel the rich, cool, soil between my fingers and begin to coax some life from the land. Yes this includes the backbreaking and thankless task of HEAVY weeding, but it's such a pleasure to play in the garden.

This year my intention is to do far more than previous years. More veggies, more flowers, and hopefully even a new fruit tree or two.


There is no way I can do this without thinking of my grandmother, she always had what, as a child, seemed like a huge garden. She tended it with great love and always seemed so happy amongst the furrows and was very adept at using the fruits, and vegetables, of her labours.

This time of year, and playing in the garden, can't help but make me sing what has always been my favorite hymn. A song that for years after my grandmother's death I couldn't even think of without tears for it was used in her memorial. Yet even after years of being away from church and trying to distance myself from all of christendom I still frequently find myself singing and with great relish...

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

Refrain

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Refrain

Words: Charles Austin Miles (1912)

So today, with the help of my nephew, I enter The Garden, to endure hard labour and to reminisce of my dear grandmother whom I still love and miss every day.

"One is nearer G-d's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth."

~ Dorothy Frances Gurney