Dry Creek and a Sunday Song: "Amazing Grace" Performed by Rod Stewart

This is late, I know, but I thought it was more important to be a dad Easter and less important to be a blog-writer.  It's not often that I get my priorities right, but yesterday I did, and as a result it was perhaps the best Easter I've experienced.  Anyway, enjoy Dry Creek and a Sunday Song.

It's Saturday morning, the sun warm and bright; the leaves of the small aspen in the planter on the deck of outdoor kitchen flicker in the light; pansies in the hanging baskets glow, golden yellow.  Spring is here.  Dry Creek is no longer dry.  It started running sometime yesterday afternoon, a month late, due to the drought. But the leaves are open, the fields green.  Today, we will prepare the beds for Marci's garden for cutting flowers.  No doubt tonight we will be worn out and ready tomorrow for Dry Creek and a Sunday Song Easter morning.

This week I picked "Amazing Grace" performed by Rod Stewart as my Sunday Song.  One of the most familiar songs in the English speaking world, most people are at least somewhat familiar with its history, so I'll keep the text brief.  "Amazing Grace" was written by John Newton (1725-1807).  Although in later life Newton was a poet and clergyman, before his conversion, he had been a captain of a slave ship.

I step out the sliding glass doors into the glorious morning.  It is warm without a cloud in the sky.  The first thing I see is our partially completed outdoor kitchen, which will house the grill and a snack bar as well as provide morning shade to half of the outdoor dining area.

Part of the deck for the unfinished outdoor kitchen.

Because John Newton had been quite the opposite of a religious man early in life, having earned the reputation as one of the most profane sailors who wrote obscene songs, and because his conversion came slowly with many relapses into his old lifestyle before he finally conquered his demons, he is a perfect example of the power of the atonement described so powerfully in his song.

Darth, our beautiful Border Collie mix, who we rescued from starvation one winter when we lived on the Navajo reservation, is waiting for me, anxious for our walk.

Newton's conversion began March 1748 when aboard the Greyhound in the North Atlantic.  A violent storm struck and swept one of Newton's shipmates overboard.  Newton rose to the occasion and took control of the wheel of ship, and while Navigating the storm, he pondered his divine challenge.

First, we walk over towards Grandpa's Orchard, three old apricot trees that were part of the original farm when my stepfather purchased the property in 1978.

After that, Newton began to question whether he had been worthy of God's mercy and believed that the storm had been a divine wake-up call.

Darth and I head down into the main canyon, Chalk Creek, amble down the narrow, rocky road, then back through a thicket of cottonwood to the big creek.  Sunlight reflects off the water and mesmerizes me while further down stream Darth splashes about, something she doesn't do often. 

Slowly, Newton put his life together around his religious principles.  He courted a woman he had loved, Mary "Polly" Catlett, and was patient with her parents, who at first did not except him due to his previous life.  Eventually, he married her and worked as a customs agent.  During this time he began to teach himself Latin, Greek and theology.  Friends were so inspired by his passion that they suggested he become a priest, and in 1764 he was offered the curacy of Olney, Buckinghamshire.

Darth and I head up Dry Creek, our canyon.  The leaves are small and sprite and as luck would have it, the new water of the season is just reaching where we cross.  I can actually walk in front of the water on the dry creek bed and afterword watch the shiny liquid fill in the dark shadowy crevices.

Dry Creek Canyon

The poem, "Amazing Grace" was written late in 1772, published anonymously in 1779 and set to the current tune, "New Britain," in 1835.  Ever since then, folk music and perhaps even our experience of Grace have not quite been the same.

Darth and I stop, take in the gentle grace of the new, living water of Dry Creek, as I reflect on the meaning of Easter Morning. 

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information on "Amazing Grace."