Heaven in a Wild Flower

William Blake wrote that he saw “heaven in a wild flower“. Even in September there are still many beautiful wild flowers around in Shropshire. And maybe they can transport us to another place?

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your Hand

And Eternity in an hour”

William Blake, ‘Auguries of Innocence”

“Heaven in a wild flower”

Flowering amongst the weeds

We each have our wounds.

We each have our share of pain.

But is there anything more wrong with you than with others who have lived, and suffered, and struggled, and rejoiced?

We are all part of a complete yet ever-expanding human community.

We flower amongst the weeds.

We have our imperfections, and our strengths. Our moments of weakness, and our moments of inspiration.

Like flowers, we stretch towards the light that is goodness and truth.

Truly we flower amongst the weeds.

Daffodils and Celandines with William Wordsworth

Wordsworth was born on April 7th, the right time of year for someone who wrote so beautifully about daffodils!

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance...

Just down the road from Shrewsbury, where I live, is a tiny but beautiful village called Atcham, where I took a shot of these lovely, cheerful flowers that are still shouting their yellow hoorays everywhere in the UK at the moment…

Wordsworth also wrote about a less well-known wild flower, that is one of the first to bloom – the lesser celandine:

There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine,
That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;
And, the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, ’tis out again!

Here are some beautiful bright celandines, from a walk near Hanwood, Shropshire:

There is such a beautiful world around us, and there is something amazingly cheerful in these bright yellows – I don’t know why!

Perhaps it reminds me of the brightness and yellowness of the sun, our source of light and heat, without which neither daffodils, celandines nor humans could live?

The wild flowers seem to shout out, with Wordsworth – “Life Is For Good!”