Cambric shirt

We are getting ready for this afternoon gardenining work, we will stir cow manure that has been composted in humus, in rain water for one hour, sing songs and then go around town spraying in the yards and gardens for nourishment in the winter planting.

One of the songs that we will sing is a famous one from England, Scarborough Fair, and it reminds me of the continuous work that we do in life, in relationships, to see the best in every person. I am reading a book on The Meaning of Love by Soloviev and there are many quotes from the texts that are describing this striving:

"I can only acknowledge the absolute significance of a given person, or believe in him (without which true love is impossible), by affirmation of oneself in th sphere of the absolute, by affirming him in God, and consequently by belief in God himself, and in myself, as possessing in God the center and root of my own existence. This triune faith is already a certain internal act, and by this act is laid the first basis of a true union of the man with his other and the restoration in it (or in them) of the image of God......
But in order for the faith to be a living faith, it must set itself steadfastly against that existing society where meaningless chance builds its dominion upon the play of animal passions and, still worse, human passions. Against these hostile powers, believing faith has only one defensive weapon-endurance to the end. Te earn its bliss, it must take up its cross. In our materialistic society it is impossible to preserve true love, unless we understand and accept it as a moral achievement. Not without reason does the Orthodox Church in her  marriage ceremony make mention of holy martyrs and compare their crowns to the bridal crowns.
Religious faith and moral achievement safeguard an individual human and his love from being engulfed by materialistic society dyring this lifetime, but they do not give a triumph over death....An individual can really be saved, i.e, can regenerate and immortalize his individual life in true love, only conjointly or together with others."

This ties also with the lecture of the Gospel for this week, Reveltaions 3, 1-6, where John talks to the Church of Sardis, as they are asleep, yet some of them are worthy and will be clothed with the white garment. As we ponder on these thoughts and carry the work for the Earth, we bring this verse:

Let us but rightly, oh Spirit of Worlds,

Be penetrated

By spirit-grasping aspiration,

that we won't miss

That, what can be done for the good of the Earth

And for the progress of the Earth.

to wrest from Pride and Fear,
in the right sense.