Green Cathedral

There is something about growing old that brings memories to mind, sometimes ones that surprise you because you hadn't thought about them for decades.  While walking in our little woods on the "fingers" of land that separate the canyons for which the road we live on is named, a song came back to me that I learned in junior high school choir.  I thought at the time it was one of the most beautiful pieces of music I'd ever heard, probably because I could relate to it so well from my past experiences.  

Across the road from my grandma's house was a wooded area with a stream running through it; I spent many happy hours wandering around through the briars and trees alone.  Later on when the local switchboard closed down and my parents and I moved to the country for a year or two, the old house we lived in was surrounded by timber; again, I spent leisurely hours just walking through the trees while Daddy worked on the farm and Mother worked at VanZant's grocery store in Eagleville.

We moved to Kansas City in 1956, I think.  I later learned the song in junior high that took me back to those happy hours in the country.  I took a couple of photos this morning that reminded me of the song, as well as my woodland wanderings.

Green Cathedral

I know a green cathedral,

A shadowed forest shrine,

Where leaves in love join hands above

To arch your prayer and mine.

Within its cool depths sacred,

A priestly cedar sighs,

And the fir and pine lift arms divine 

Unto the pure blue skies

In my dear green cathedral

There is a hallowed seat

And choir loft in branched croft

Where songs of bird hymn sweet.

And I like to dream at evening

When stars its arches light,

That my Lord and God in its hallowed sod

In the calm, cool peace of night.

And here is the song: