The Hills are Alive with the Blooms of Springtime

We hear it sung each summer as Leavenworth's theme song. Now we will listen to it in church this Earth Day Sunday as our ritual of welcoming Spring and celebrating the work of our Creator. And you know it well!

The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung, for a thousand years.
The hills are alive, with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears.

I love to go to the hills each morning myself at this time because what I find is that the hills really are alive...alive with the color of springtime. Walking past the Ski Hill amphitheater I cannot help but sing along with an absent Maria as I witness the transformation of the forest from winter. But I change the words of the song to give expression to what I am seeing and feeling within.

The hills are alive in a blaze of glory
With blooms that unfurl, as they have before.
The hills are alive with the shades of springtime
My heart swells with joy as it beats with "more."

(Or something like that, with apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein).

The color begins with the yellow Avalanche Lilies and white Baby Faces. Soon they are joined by blue Oregon Anemones. And all around is the promise of the "more" yet to be given - the purple Lupin, the bright yellow Balsam Root and a rare bloom the color of the dark chocolate found in our Leavenworth chocolate stores.

In the meantime, as part of our play in this trinity-mapped world of ours, the Jerusalem Cross Garden has been seeded with the spring wheat. And the Lenten challenge, fulfilled in Easter promise, will be re-enacted by creation on the holy ground of church garden where, as seeds humbly die and "resurrect" in fertile soil to yield abundantly, souls are nurtured and fed.