Higher Notes

Tonight as I walked my horse the half-mile home from his pasture, two Veeries, one perched on each side of the dirt road, warbled back and forth to each other, making the whole evening air swim with burbling streams of notes that seemed to dribble down even into my shoes...

It is Spring. I am surrounded by extravagance. Indeed--

"How Can I Keep From Singing?"

My life goes on in endless song
Above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real though distant hymn
Which hails a new creation.
Above the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing--
It sounds an echo in my soul--
How can I keep from singing?

What though the tempest 'round me roars
I know the truth, it liveth,
What though the darkness 'round me close,
Songs in the night, it giveth.
What storm can shake my in-most calm
When to this rock I'm clinging?
Since Love's the lord of Heaven and earth--
How can I keep from singing?

I lift my eyes, the clouds grow thin,
I see the blue above it,
And ever on this pathway smooths
Since first I learned to love it.
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart
A fountain ever springing--
All things are mine since I am His--
How can I keep from singing?

Probably neither Veery has the words of this old hymn consciously running about in a less-than-pea-size brain--but the same force calls them to trickle their little brooks of laughter down onto my head, as that which pulls the hoarse notes out of my earth-bound being, placing them up on green branches and giving a new perspective to the pot-holes in the dirt road. A higher one.