SAINT MACHAR'S

In front of our house, the daffodils are starting to pop up from the cold, winter ground. It won't be long now!

Daffodils always remind me of one of my favorite Wordsworth poems:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 

By William Wordsworth

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.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

I love the simple idea at the heart of this poem. Wordsworth is out walking one day when he comes across an entire field of daffodils. So beautiful. So full of joy.

He loved the moment, but never anticipated how much more joy those daffodils would bring him. Now - years later - he finds that he can be lounging on a couch, half out of it - or maybe feeling down - and his imagination calls up that field of flowers. And his heart is instantly lifted.

At the mere memory!

For me, daffodils are forever associated with St. Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen, Scotland. 

St. Machar's looms over one end of Seaton Park, the ground situated between Hillhead dorm and classrooms of Aberdeen University. Hillhead was my home away from home my junior year of college. 

Each weekday I trekked across Seaton Park and hiked up the gentle hill toward St. Machar's on my way to class. One February day the hillside was "suddenly" covered in bright daffodils.

Like Wordsworth, I "gazed and gazed". They stopped me in my tracks. 

Here's a photo from St. Machar's Facebook page:

Beautiful, huh?*

This afternoon I plan to take a moment to lay on a couch and let the daffodils of St. Machar's "flash upon my inward eye". 

It's the best way to overcome February pensiveness!

____________________________

* The current structure of St. Machar's dates back to the 1300s, but Machar himself began worship services on this site in 580. A bit of gruesome historical trivia: When William Wallace was drawn and quartered in 1305, one of his left quarters was sent to Aberdeen and was encased in the walls of St. Machar's.