Astronomy Picture Of the Day

      I was utterly alone with the sun and the earth.  Lying down on the grass, I spoke in my soul to the earth, the sun, the air, and the distant sea far beyond sight.  I thought of the earth's firmness -- I felt it bear me up; through the grassy cough there can an influence as if I could feel the great earth speaking to me.  I thought of the wandering air -- its pureness, which is its beauty; the air touched me and gave me something of itself.  I spoke to the sea:  though so far, in my mind I saw it, green at the rim of the earth and blue in deeper ocean . . .  I turned to the blue heaven over, gazing into its depth, inhaling its exquisite colour and sweetness.  The rich blue of the unattainable flower of the sky drew my soul towards it, and there it rested, for pure colour is rest of heart.  By all these I prayed . . .

     Then, returning, I prayed by the sweet thyme, whose little flowers I touched with my hands; by the slender grass; by the crumble of dry chalky earth I toop up and let fall through my fingers.  Touching the crumble of earth, the blade of grass, the thyme flower, breathing the earth-encircling eair, thinking of the sea and the sky, holding out my hand for the sunbeams to touch it, prone on the sward in token of deep reverence, thus I prayed . . .

                                                                     - Richard Jefferies    1848-1887

 The Life And Work of Richard Jefferies