I may be off-line for a day or two as I will be leaving India tomorrow and returning to my home base in Doha after a long summer.

The World in Slow Motion
By John Herlihy

Nature works according to its own measured time,
Drawing from the awesome depths of eternity’s mine.
Nature works according to its own mysterious plan,
Building creations the entire universe to withstand.
Nature works enduring secrets it will always withhold,
Rewriting a thrilling story never before this moment told.
Nature unveils reality to humanity not otherwise known,
Revealing a sacred tapestry only God could have sewn.

The world turns on its axis in imperceptible motion,
Obeying the laws of God with incredible devotion.
We feel it not, we can only realize that it is turning,
By the movement of the sun and its glorious burning.
Look to the shadows as they creep ever so slowly,
The slanted light of twilight breathes its final glory.
Even the stars at night never stay in the same place,
The earth itself turns as the stars stay fixed in space.

Imagine if you will the birth of a simple flower,
The buds sway their heads in the spring bower.
The flower still wrapped tight in its leafy case,
Holding back before revealing its amazing grace.
As the day begins and the sun climbs the sky,
The bud breaks open in slow motion, feeling shy.
Petal by petal, opening in stages breath by breath,
As though lifted into the world from living death.

Soon the flower has emerged with outstretched arms,
Swaying in the gentle wind uttering its sacred psalms.
The flower now stretched to the brink, completely exposed,
Its watchful eye now fully awake after its nightly repose.
The bloom gladly basking in the sun’s glorious resurrection,
Ready to fulfill its sacred duty in offering us its consecration.
Who imagines such a wondrous miracle could daily happen,
As the plant sits quietly on the windowsill of a forest cabin.

We think of the planet Earth as solid, standing tall and still,
We seldom consider the fact that it moves on its own will.
The past has a way of disappearing well beyond any reach,
The future never stands still, always rushing into the breach.
Time itself seems fickle, sometimes rushing, sometimes slow,
Sometimes pelting like stormy rain, sometimes gentle as snow.
As the earth turns, it flows onward perpetually in slow motion,
A journey never witnessed as it moves thru eternity’s vast ocean.