Dear Friends,
So often Garden Night brings the unexpected. Yesterday was so hot and muggy, I decided we would all do one thing: clear the weeds from the Kindergarden potato patch in preparation for harvesting. It was shady at least. And we got it done. We were all sticky and greasy with sweat. We had visitors from Rodgers Park, and our former Alderman Ameya Pawar visiting. There were lots of people and some gardeners wanted to make a fire for cooking even tho we were cooking with out fire.
But at about 7:00, as the sky was beginning to dim,
we were looking up northward, at a swarm of dragon flies doing aerial ballet,
when we noticed simultaneously something strange going on in the sky. a huge, swirling disc shaped clod formation, like a starship taking up half the sky.
It was turbulent, and approaching. It was so astonishingly beautiful that we stopped and set up benches just to watch. It kept shifting and changing and then it would be pierced, illuminated, back lit and shockingly shot through with brilliant lightning, and the deep belly rumbles of lightning. The winds picked up, and the temperature dropped. But, it was hypnotic and difficult to leave. By this time the night had fallen and the cloud / lightning display became more dramatic, with endless forked, and even circular strikes of lightning. One family left, out the gate at Sunnyside, then came running back, like town cryers: "The Moon! The Moon!" And sure enough, in the clear southeast sky and almost full moon was coming up like a giant orange pumpkin. Tiny droplets of rain like some gift, a mist-er to cool us. What a night.
It reminded me of that beautiful song by Bob Dylan. Almost all the lyrics came back to me and I have reprinted them here for you. You don't have to read them all at once. But they are as fresh relevant today as when they were written in 1964. It is a song that sides with the underdogs "the abandoned and pursued and refugees on the unarmed road of flight". It reminded be that in 1998 or so, Waters School accepted hundreds of students and families who were refugees from the wars in the former Yugoslavia and from Central America. In a year long project there stories were collected, turned into artwork, the mosaic tile, and installed on the stepping stones and bench in a newly created garden at the front entrance of the school: The Journeys and Refuge garden. I was very happy this week to be able to share this story with our sixth graders, at a time when refugees are being treated like criminals.
Well, I hope our school still stands as a safe harbor for all those in need. And this Earth continues to inspire us with displays of brilliance and transcendence.
Here's the song:
Chimes of Freedom
Bob Dylan
Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsake'd
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Source: LyricFind
Mr. Leki
So often Garden Night brings the unexpected. Yesterday was so hot and muggy, I decided we would all do one thing: clear the weeds from the Kindergarden potato patch in preparation for harvesting. It was shady at least. And we got it done. We were all sticky and greasy with sweat. We had visitors from Rodgers Park, and our former Alderman Ameya Pawar visiting. There were lots of people and some gardeners wanted to make a fire for cooking even tho we were cooking with out fire.
But at about 7:00, as the sky was beginning to dim,
we were looking up northward, at a swarm of dragon flies doing aerial ballet,
when we noticed simultaneously something strange going on in the sky. a huge, swirling disc shaped clod formation, like a starship taking up half the sky.
It was turbulent, and approaching. It was so astonishingly beautiful that we stopped and set up benches just to watch. It kept shifting and changing and then it would be pierced, illuminated, back lit and shockingly shot through with brilliant lightning, and the deep belly rumbles of lightning. The winds picked up, and the temperature dropped. But, it was hypnotic and difficult to leave. By this time the night had fallen and the cloud / lightning display became more dramatic, with endless forked, and even circular strikes of lightning. One family left, out the gate at Sunnyside, then came running back, like town cryers: "The Moon! The Moon!" And sure enough, in the clear southeast sky and almost full moon was coming up like a giant orange pumpkin. Tiny droplets of rain like some gift, a mist-er to cool us. What a night.
It reminded me of that beautiful song by Bob Dylan. Almost all the lyrics came back to me and I have reprinted them here for you. You don't have to read them all at once. But they are as fresh relevant today as when they were written in 1964. It is a song that sides with the underdogs "the abandoned and pursued and refugees on the unarmed road of flight". It reminded be that in 1998 or so, Waters School accepted hundreds of students and families who were refugees from the wars in the former Yugoslavia and from Central America. In a year long project there stories were collected, turned into artwork, the mosaic tile, and installed on the stepping stones and bench in a newly created garden at the front entrance of the school: The Journeys and Refuge garden. I was very happy this week to be able to share this story with our sixth graders, at a time when refugees are being treated like criminals.
Well, I hope our school still stands as a safe harbor for all those in need. And this Earth continues to inspire us with displays of brilliance and transcendence.
Here's the song:
Chimes of Freedom
Bob Dylan
Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsake'd
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Source: LyricFind
Mr. Leki
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