On Love

“Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.” — Bruce Lee

On Friendship

“And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have re-written mine by being my friend…” Encore un HB

On Joy

“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkley

On Faith

“Don’t let anyone take away from you your faith that God wants to do something great with you.” Martin Luther (translated by my son, Jonathan)

Rise Up, My Love (33): Who is the Rose and the Lily?

Song of Solomon 2:1 “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”  Although there is a chapter break in our modern translations (made for convenience and never intended as an interpretive device), there is no break in the thought.  The bride and groom are still communing together, delighting in one another’s presence.  How true it is, that in pure love, time together is never wasted. Our chief pleasure is exploring and enjoying our loved one… experiencing the uniqueness and unity of the two-in-one relationship.  Like Mary at the feet of Jesus, time spent in learning of him is ever “the better part,” and here the bride senses and verbalizes this joy. “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys,” she exclaims.  This is not proud boasting; this is the recognition of whom she sees herself to be as reflected in his eyes of love.  It is the acknowledgment of what she’s learned from him—what he has taught her to see in herself. The rose of Sharon is not the rose of Sharon bush as we know it today in Western civilization, nor is it any cultivated rose like those adorning gardens throughout the world.  The Hebrew word is haba’ elet, and William Wilson suggests that it may come from the word hames, meaning “acid” or “acrid,” and the word besel,  which means “bulb.” There are various suggestions for what flower might have been meant, but certainly it was a flower growing wild on the Plain of Sharon.  Perhaps the most common thought is that it was the Narcissus tazetta, which grows plentifully in Palestine and has always been very popular with the  Israelites. This beautiful plant (with a poisonous, “acrid” bulb), bears small clusters of fragrant white flowers. Also, the lily of the valley is not the tiny, fragrant lily that adorns shady gardens and is so diligently sought by woodland wanderers in the springtime!  Lilies were well known in Palestine; they were associated with wedding feasts and were the predominant flower used in decorative carvings on the pillars of Solomon’s temple (I Kings 7:19,22). Lilies often grew to the regal height of four or more feet and bore large, white, heavily perfumed flowers with six petals and six leaves, very much like the magnificent Madonna lilies of today.  Lilies grew wild and were especially thick in the fertile valleys where rich soil deposits had washed down from the mountainsides. Interestingly, today Christians most often refer to the Lord Jesus as the “Rose of Sharon” and the “Lily of the Valley.”  Truly, all that is good and beautiful can be used in analogy for him, and perhaps it was his own beauty of character that had made the bride so lovely. But, in The Song of Solomon, it is the bride, in his embrace, searching his eyes, who exclaims, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”  It must have been a picture of how she perceived him as seeing her.

The Armstrong Archives (33): Spring Flying By

Wednesday, May 11, 1977 It must be time for our semi-annual correspondence… or at least it seems to have dwindled down to that over the past several months! Aaron and I just came in from a morning walk to see “Daddy” off to an exam and enjoy the chilly sunshine. Last weekend we enjoyed 80° weather, and this morning it was down to 31°, which may well hurt some of the local crops. This spring has just flown by. Our biggest news (which is old news at best) is that we’re expecting a new addition into the family, due two years to the day from Aaron’s expected arrival. Needless to say, we’re ecstatic, since there’s nothing we’d like more than to have a bunch more just as sweet as the one we’ve got.

Alan’s nearly through with school for this year, too, which we’re realizing with mixed emotions. He’s still facing comprehensives and national boards yet though, so the primary emotion right now is that of impending relief! We are very much looking forward to his three-week summer vacation (they don’t want the students to get lazy by having too long a rest) coming up at the end of June. Wile Alan’s classmates dream of what they can afford to buy someday, we dream of being able to spend a little time together “some day.” Of course “some day” rarely ever comes, so we try diligently to protect the fleeting nows available to us! One of our chief delights since spring has come is going for walks. Alan takes off from 5-7 pm, and since we eat right at 5:00 m, we often have time for a walk around campus or a short trip to Belle Isle Park. At Belle Isle there are such special attractions as flower gardens, ducks that will, with coaxing, eat from your hand, and a herd of tame deer, plus all the usual playground equipment children love. Aaron especially loves the ducks, and we always bring a few bits of bread or left over pancakes for him to throw to them. So far his record shot is about eighteen inches in front of his feet, and as ducks are wise enough to be leery of small boys, we sometimes have to have Alan help him lure the ducks in. Our little 18-m0nth-old does not grow by leaps and bounds (which he comes by honestly), but he has been making great strides toward speaking a reasonable sort of English. He’s a very emphatic, expressive sort of guy and is quite taken with his new ability for communication. Not yet being two, he is still very positive about things, and is quite likely to answer any question with a hearty “Ya!” The twos are coming, though, I think, because he’s getting fiercely independent. When we go for walks he sometimes goes so far as to hold his hands across his chest at corners so I can’t help him cross the street! Nor does he appreciate being held and cuddled (except when I rock him to sleep at night), but he always makes a point of kissing Alan and saying, “I love you” after he reads the bedtime story. In fact, “I yove you” was his first sentence, which he picked up spontaneously, probably from hearing it several hundred times every day. We had a wonderful weekend visit with my folks a couple of weeks ago—did a little sightseeing and a lot of visiting and resting. Dad had just been to a conference on “rapid learning,” speed-reading with the emphasis on understanding the structure of the material presented. Since I couldn’t adequately explain what he taught us from it, I won’t try, by the whole things seems absolutely fascinating to me. He read on article at 2,700 words per minute and still did a pretty fair job on the comprehension test (his regular speed is of course much less than that). Think of how much material—newspapers, magazines, books—we could digest if we read at that rate!

Since Alan will be in school almost all of July And August, we will be sure to be in Detroit if anyone is making summer travel plans and could possibly visit. We have lots of floor space and mattresses and are always eager to see good friends.

(The last picture is of Aaron’s wife, Carleen, and their third son, Reid)

Springtime along Kensington’s Deer Run Trail

Did I mention that my daughter, Kathy, and her husband are expecting a son in September? Did I mention that they bought a home just seven miles from the home we lived in when Kathy was born 30 years ago? While Aaron was visiting, we ran over to Kathy’s for a delicious brunch and then started  dreaming about which of our favorite haunts from their childhood to visit. Being a perfectly glorious spring day, we decided to go to Kensington Metro Park, which is between Ann Arbor and Detroit just off I-96. Despite its rather urban address, Kensington’s Deer Run Trail breathes natural beauty year ’round and has been a  perennial favorite of our family since Aaron was a baby. And so, off we went to check out what was happenin’ and rekindle a few happy memories from   years gone by while creating a few more. We weren’t disappointed! The first thing Iris noticed was a horrible screech coming from a pair of sand hill cranes, who were parading about the the parking lot barking out raucous sounds as sonorous as woodpeckers with buzz saws stuck in their throats. They  were also masquerading as very needy beggars, and had there not been clearly marked signs to the contrary, we might have been taken in by their pitiful pleas. It was a golden morning, and marsh marigolds were in full bloom along every little stream! A baby woodchuck peeked out at us from his hiding spot under the walkway, and little red squirrels darted about. The woodland floor was sprinkled with bright, tiny gems, like spritely hepatica and snow-white trillium.Iris rode in her stroller part of the time, but she also loved being carried, hopping down now and then to gather pebbles  or check out some particularly fascinating site a bit more closely. The chipmunks would flirt…but just a little before scampering away.The little downy woodpeckers and other birds were curious…but for some reason they wouldn’t really stay to play! However, we did get to watch a lady who was holding so still that the chickadees ate out of her hand just the way the wildlife used to eat out of our kids’ hands in  Marquette when we lived in the woods up north. Of course, it’s illegal to pick wildflowers, so even though the flowers couldn’t run  away, we were relieved that Iris was an angel and didn’t try to pick any.  We ascribe to the motto: “Take only pictures; leave only footprints.” But, I would like to add: “Give lots of praise and share happy memories.”

“I will praise you, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show forth all your marvelous works” (Psalm 9:1).