Spring (and Love) is in the Airing

Although this Sunday was an exception (it being Easter!), SAM and I enjoy taking in the sights, sounds, and sips of wine that an early springtime visit to a winery can offer. As the video above reveals--taken shortly after our return home from Florida several weeks ago--the loud music lovers had not yet invaded The Bluffs Vineyard and Winery in nearby Ava, Illinois. Now, it's not the music that we find objectionable. It's THE VOLUME! I'm sure the frogs you hear in the video, if they could voice an opinion, would agree: TURN IT DOWN! Let nature speak, softly, of love instead....

...For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme and scatt'ring bright, can love inhere,
Then as an angel, face and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,
So thy love may be my love's sphere,
Just such disparity
As is 'twixt air and angels' purity,
'Twixt women's love and men's will ever be.

--from John Donne's "Air and Angels," c. 1633--

Ferguson By Way of Aughra: "The Two Made One"

Aughra!

While most media outlets are currently focused on the nature of upraised hands (e.g., the St. Louis Rams' silent protest of grand jury decision on Michael Brown case), I got to thinking about one of my walks in Southern Illinois nature before the recent onset of winter-like weather.

SAM and I like to visit a nearby state park and walk around a bit to see what we can see. As you can see, this photo (above), taken sometime in October of this year, reveals a stump extraordinaire. "Go back!" she seems to say. Or "Turn left!" or right, as per your perspective on the situation. As per my comment to a sibling this evening: "Why can't we all just get along?"

I don't know. I guess I'm stumped. Perhaps Aughra has had her outstretched finger (or removable eye, as the case may be) on the right idea all along:

"What was sundered and undone shall be whole, the two made one.”