Thai High

February 18, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in John Bartram is at home. Leave a comment

A jewel from Thailand viewed through the winter bones of Olbrich Botanic Garden in Madison Wisconsin

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes…” Marcel Proust

John Bartram observes the Thai Pavillion at the Olbrich Botanical Garden Madison WI

I traveled to Madison Wisconsin. I anticipated the trip as a view to their deepest winter landscapes. I anticipated desiccated, dry botanic bones and horticultural sculpture. I wanted to collect evergreens and acknowledge structural habit. I wanted to see how temperature and snow-cover impact survival and hardiness.

I wasn’t imagining urban; seeking an international experience; or requiring sophistication. I wasn’t thinking oriental.

This Thai gable end is mortise and tenon construction. Gold leaf is hand applied and the roof shingles are high gloss, fire-glazed terra cotta.

New eyes. Different landscape. In turning a corner of a wondrous wintry collection of grasses and structural shapes, the botanic garden’s path led to a distant pavilion of gilded and graceful arches with winged pediments. http://www.olbrich.org/

Where in the world was I? What powerful King and craftsmen transposed the warmth of this art into such a cold clime? It was the magic of theatrical artifice. The view conjured dancers amid palms; spotted leopards hunting in tangled jungles; elephants spouting fountains of murky river water; and people conducting their business and managing their lives in glinting rainbow of colored silk and shimmer of beaten gold.

In short, everything that a Quaker gentleman from Philadelphia should most resent, despise and condemn.

Instead, I was struck dumb. My wife would say that it was a natural reaction.

The skin of the Naga was represented by the scales of paving along the sinuous path

The path became a sinuous curve of Naga-hide. The Hindu representation of this snake god plays well within our Christian context of being reborn within a new skin. For me, especially, it connects with the elemental forces at work in nature. I carry my snake stick as a talisman and also as a reminder of the interconnectedness of all things.

Olbrich Botanic Garden Madison Wisconsin Kirk R. Brown John Bartram

The Naga guards the entrance to the Asian jungle recreation

Here I found myself an heretical Christian, walking a Hindi snake-skin path to a pavilion dedicated by a 95% Buddhist-worshipping culture. I didn’t have time to consider the horticultural implications.

Olbrich Botanic Garden John Bartram Kirk R. Brown

The Thai pavilion has a platform for dancing, ceremonial services and parties.

Then I turned around and walked back by the way I’d come. It was obvious that a great many people had worked a great many hours to bring us to this understanding. And nature connects us all. It was a revelation.

Olbrich Botanic Garden boardwalk over the dry pond.

A Winter’s Night

February 17, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in John Bartram is at home. Tags: full of sound and fury signifying nothing, macbeth act, petty pace, shakespeare macbeth, shout down, sound and fury signifying nothing 6 Comments

John Bartram Kirk R.Brown Olbrich Botanic Garden Madison WI

Like a tree in winter, I have been lean and drawn out.

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day-to-day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.” Shakespeare Macbeth Act 5 , scene 5, 19-28

Home is where the dreams lead you at the end of the journey

I have been away too long and missed the connection with HOME. In the olde days, I would anticipate Ann on the porch with outstretched arms and a shout down the path of, “Welcome home to Bartram’s Garden…”

Walking up the Bartram's Garden path, Kirk R. Brown John Bartram

"Welcome home to Bartram's Garden!" always greeted me as I walked up the path to the house.

So all month I’ve said that I will post tomorrow. And tomorrow. and tomorrow. Because of this month of travel that I have survived, I never reached the tomorrow of my dreams.

I’ve seen sights and dreamed dreams. I am an olde man, after all. I have traveled to new worlds, met new friends and gathered a great many experiences about which I need to write. And then I never preserved a moment to reflect on all of the opportunities that I passed.

John Bartram Kirk R. Brown Horticultural Speaker

John is caught in a frozen moment in Madison Wisconsin

Where are the reminders of the sights? What are the addresses of the friends? How were the experiences praised or relived or examined?

I have traveled many roads in the last month

How many were the times that I said I needed to note this thought? How much was the value of the moment? How many plants did I touch that I could not name? What was the nature of the mission and what did I bring back to the safety and security of HOME?

The value of the plants that I discover is only as much as they survive the trip. They need to be brought home alive. So if it doesn’t survive the trip, did it actually ever exist? Talk to the Franklinia alatamaha. I never answered the question about that plant. It ceased to exist in nature.

Franklinia alatamaha captured in a painting. Extinct in the wild.

It’s time to post. It’s now a moment in the history of the world to capture the thoughts that were bright and sparkly in their passage.

Pater noster

January 24, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in John Bartram is at home. Leave a comment

“Muse, tell me the cause: how was she offended in her divinity? How was she grieved, the Queen of Heaven, to drive a man, noted for virtue, to endure such dangers, to face so many trials? Can there be such anger in the minds of the gods?” The Aeneid, Virgil

Pater noster. Our father.

Paterno…

It is a papist sentiment and I never thought myself capable of one. But here I am and here is the sentiment. Staring me in the face of all that I consider to be sacrosanct. Another papist thought.

They collect around me this morning in a dim and frosty light. Anathema. Now there is a religious sentiment with which I have some familiarity. Outcast and pariah all carry the same meaning and weight.

There was a man who claimed much of his life’s inspiration came from this first reading in Latin of Virgil’s epic poem. This man claimed as his most esteemed mentor the priest who unlocked the door to the magical reading room.

The Aeneid begins as quoted above. It is the story of band of men in search of country…home…and ultimately God. It is a tale of hardships shared, trials survived, and treacheries overcome. It was a world much like our current one where heroes are made on a patch of turf 100 yards long.

Much the same as today’s tale, the Aeneid is a great love story. A passionate affair of man to woman and hero to nation.

Unlike our current tale, the Aeneid ends in triumph as Aeneas vanquishes his enemy and achieves his destiny.

Life rarely imitates art. In this cold and bitter morning our tale’s would-be hero rests not on laurels but on criticisms from those who would be like Cassius:

“Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare

I come not to bury Caesar, but to praise him. My Pater Noster will dwell on recognition of goodness and valor, humor and strength. It will speak to the legions of followers who like their dramas large and heroes free from stain. And to the smaller numbers of those who believe that common humanity binds us all into forgiving frailty and imperfection.

Virgil’s Aeneas founded a dynasty that became the Roman Empire. He was a mythological being crafted to support a reign of Caesars. Our modern-day Caesar ruled a world where Brutus and Cassius played out their drama in the intensely bright light of moral scrutiny. The battle lines were drawn across computer screens. The armies were arrayed in blue and white and red.

Virgil could never imagine an enemy of such scope and reach. And then again, perhaps he did. In Virgil’s age, the enemy was most often defined as “The Gods!”

Today we are much too civilized and God is silent.

Pater Noster.

They Planted Trees on the Roof

January 17, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in Architecture, Gardening, Landscape Design, Sustainability Tags: downtown kansas city, dramatic expression, kansas city missouri, kauffman center, organic surfaces, rodgers and hammerstein 1 Comment

“I got to Kansas City on a Frid’y. By Sattidy I larned a thing or two. For up to then I didn’t have an idy, of whut the modren world was comin’ to!

Everything’s up to date in Kansas City! They gone about as fer as they can go. They went an’ built a skyscraper seven stories high–about as high as a buildin’ orta grow.”

Will Parker singing about his experiences in the big city from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma.

{Submitted by Kirk R. Brown for J.B. approval. Kansas City, Missouri. Kauffman Center http://www.kauffmancenter.org/}

The green roof on the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

John, on the way back home, I had to stop at this new center for the arts in the heart of downtown Kansas City. It was an amazing end to the journey to OZ and back. There is a roof on the end of the building that is covered with trees and ornamental grass. Just look at it! Amazing technology. Sustainable and beautiful all at the same time! And GREEN.

The double shells of the exterior mask the opposing rings of the interior spaces.

The roof had several levels visible from the interior spaces.

National Green Center, Kansas City Kansas

Multi-level green roof.

At the core of this building are two fabulous performance spaces that allow artists their full range of musical and dramatic expression. The close end houses the orchestral space. The magnificent organ and unique pipe installation has yet to be voiced and played.

The Symphony side of the Arts Center is a flexible concert space.

The interior space is wood clad an offers perfect acoustics. Beautiful organic surfaces. Pins would drop noisily.

These arcs of wood oppose the exterior shells of the building.

The upper shell is home to the Kansas City Opera Company and all of the touring shows requiring a fully functional theatrical road house.

The fire curtain was down on the tour.

The interior grand tier is designed to give the audience an impression of being inside a chandelier. The walls are back-lit crystal panels. The halls a painted in large fields of color.

The Circle combines private boxes with grand tier seating.

It was a private tour on a very quick stop. But I wanted to share with you the amazing sites that are changing the face of the way we look at and treat our landscapes. This view of nature was supremely artistic.

The lobby expands out into the space between the performance venues.

And then on my way to the car in the parking garage, I heard strange music coming from a group of pipes glowing with the changing melodic patterns. Wow. This was a grand way to finish up an amazing experience.

: The music and tonal coloration joined the spheres of art and performance.

The trip ended at the drive up from the garage.

The end of the Kansas City experience on the way to the airport.

Travels Through a Green Nation

January 17, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, Horticultural Association, John Bartram is at home., New Plants, Nursery, Sustainability Tags: fellow gardeners, western nursery Leave a comment

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” Friedrich Nietzsche

My amanuensis, Kirk R. Brown, has scheduled some days apart from me in this winter season. He is attending to his personal business on many fronts relating to the greening of America. These days and in this particular season they have gatherings of our clans of fellow gardeners across this vast country of ours. He loves what he does. His connections are numerous and his ease on meeting strangers makes good friends of potential enemies. He plays the fool well but does not easily suffer them.

This is a trade show rebranded from the original Western Nursery and Landscape Association

These clannish troupings of our tribal green color bring together all manner of possible combinations: product endorsements, improvements, plants, equipment (a very mannish, clannish thing indeed!), educational opportunities, recognitions, reconnections, and escape from our everyday existence in an office or nursery or garden. Kirk was farther afield last week than was in my awareness of time and space.

Ball Horticultural put out a colorful display of their new selections

He went to Kansas: a place over the rainbow and a left turn at the North Star. Great, green fields awaited his arrival. Fertile oases of alluvial ground watered by a great river in the center of our continent. In life’s travels we pass many streams but once. You must make special note of passing a great watershed. Kirk retells his experience in Kansas last week as the passing of a great watershed.

Western Landscape and Nursery Association

A trade show floor is full of the products from the world of nature. Evergreen!

This clan was rebranded within a twelve-month period. It was an ancient root out of the west. Its lands and nurseries were abundant and strong throughout it 125 plus year history. As with many old things, changes come sometimes planned, sometimes by choice, and most times by need. Take my own ancient life as an example! They needed to view life in a new way.

Western Nursery and Landscape Association

The latest in equipment for garden illumination. How I wish it had been available in my youth!

The new clan is known as “The National Green Center!” Isn’t that wonderful? What a unique concept. They believe themselves to be the center of this country’s green movement. Isn’t that brazen? My Darby Meeting would hardly approve, but then we know what they felt about my outrageousness.

Color abounded in Kansas City

But this group of wise and far-sighted leaders wished to fly into a new dawn. Realizing that they had need for wings, they first thought to dance. The analogy fits like a clogger’s shoe. It is hard and dynamic–dramatic almost–in its use. They decided to first refashion the style of production:

They renamed. They refit. They colorized. They developed a sense of Fashion! They thought to enlist the help of other clans. They recognized strangers and invited fellow travelers. They opened the doors in preparedness for the day when the feathers would be dry and flight could be achieved.

Networking opportunities were abundant. Michael Dirr confers with Reps from Bailey Nurseries and Ball Horticultural.

I heartily applaud the steps they’ve taken to ensure all of our collective and natural futures. I congratulate them on their need to be sustainable: in organization, in fiscal responsibility, and in connection. With this green botanical nature that courses through all of us, we need to hold close and respect deeply those who choose to do battle with the angry gods of commerce and industry.

“Ah! Sweet Melissa! There was a fashion show!”

January 16, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, Horticultural Association, New Plants, Nursery, Sustainability 1 Comment

“It’s a new era in fashion – there are no rules. It’s all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together.” — Alexander McQueen

: “One is never over-dressed or underdressed with a Little Black Dress.” Karl Lagerfeld

{Submitted by Kirk R. Brown for J.B. approval. Kansas City, Kansas. National Green Center. http://www.nationalgreencentre.org/index.php }

John! There was a fashion show. It’s a natural! I mean, it’s of nature. Listen: the models paraded down a runway with plants. It was a fashion show of lights, color, and beautiful models–with attitude. The beautiful people were carrying pots of beautiful new plants. Why didn’t you ever think of this?

: “Yes Dorothy, there is a real Miss Kansas!”

It was called “The Sweet Melissa Fashion Show” and it introduced 50–FIFTY–new plants to the trade. That’s one quarter of all of the plants you introduced in your youth!

The experience was exhilarating. The crowd was raucous. The bars were open. The lights were brilliant. And the runway stretched a green mile.

: The runway was crowded with fashionista.

I was just part of the crowd. I was making notes in the program just like everyone else as the latest hort-couture designs paraded past. There was a continuous buzz throughout the room. Exhibitors, attendees, press, and nursery hybridizers hovered around the corridor of bright lights.

: It was a rainbow collection of new plant introductions. We spent a day in OZ!

Many of the introductions were represented by colorful broadsides illustrating the plant at height of bloom or seasonal color. Backstage, the fashion collection was lined up waiting for the show to proceed.

: This fashion line up was waiting for the runway.

Both before and after the show, the runway became a focus of the trade show’s excitement. People could meet and sit to discuss their business. The carpet remained a colorful reminder of the show’s sparkle.

: Maria Zampini and Emily Bibens have plantitude on the runway.

I respectfully submit this news release for the pleasure it may provide and the knowledge of new plants it may tease you to investigate. http://www.nationalgreencentre.org/2012_FashionShow.vp.html

Kirk R. Brown

: The author, Kirk R. Brown, doft a hat to stay tuned with the fashion harmonies.

A Green Industry Summit Council

January 16, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Horticultural Association, John Bartram is at home., Landscape Design, Nursery, Sustainability Leave a comment

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

“A plague [on all] your houses!” with apologies to Mercutio from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Act 3, scene 1

My amanuensis has sent field notes back to me of a meeting of leaders in this botanical industry. The gathering of minds had an intent to define a way through the shoals of troubled water in which we swim. There were sharp minds at council tables.

Two statements of purpose were attached to the gathering of horticultural tribes:

1. Provide a venue for leaders of the industry’s organizations and associations to share insights regarding the future of the industry and the opportunities and challenges that are likely to emerge as they work to support their members and constituents.

2. Initiate the first phase of an ongoing dialogue among these leaders to support their efforts to address and capitalize on these opportunities as they explore [what?] they may mean for the future of their organizations.

National Green Center Summit for Industry Leadership

The foolscap newsprint was a image from my youth. These elephant folio sized sheets were the same that Ben Franklin would have used in his print shop.

This was a very heady agenda. A lot of work was initiated by the brief confederation of horticultural colonies. It was the first trumpet call to become a United Nation of Green.

Unlike the First and Second Continental Congresses, there were women present at the heart of this discussion. Wisdom AND beauty. Age and the enthusiasm of youth. Brilliance of mind and those still dazed by the glare from the noonday sun. And there were writers of well-turned phrases.

Sarah Woody Bibens was in a leadership capacity as Executive Director of the Western Landscape and Nursery Association

The reporter on site took special note of the ease with which the discussions were facilitated. I greatly respect the scientific method and the processes in place to develop a group dynamic. Dr. David Renz was the professor in charge. His degree is recognized and promoted by the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, The Henry W. Bloch School of Management, University of Missouri, Kansas City.

National Green Center Industry Leadership Summit

The good Doctor was praised for his professional and efficient staging of the Association Summit.

In the world of my youth, we could have used such well-studied and eminently qualified professionals. In my youth, I only had the wits with which I was born. Now we can rest more easily on the taller shoulders of those who write better sentences…or possess more credentials…or speak with louder voices.

As in my day of Quaker Meetings, this group’s consensus was reached after strenuous exercise and posturing. There was no argument. There also was no vote. The congressional leaders concurred to leave the observations in an unedited form.

Notes were taken, collected, and preserved. I am told that those in attendance wanted to, “build on this session’s info and take it forward.”

The delegates to this congress were urged: “DON’T WASTE THIS INPUT.” In future, it might be brought out and viewed through a darkened lens. But if it is not to be used immediately, how shall it not be wasted?

What proof can be drawn that this meeting occurred? What sound does a falling tree make if unheard by a passerby? When does a natural confederation cease to be a group of individuals and become an individual group?

This congress produced a set of Articles of Confederation. Analysed in their pieces, they have a disparate and almost desperate need to grasp the roots and promote a horticultural revolution. Again, Ben Franklin was there before us, “for if we don’t hang together, we shall–most assuredly–all hang separately…”

Truer words were never spoken. Or written. We shall see if they are a call to action.

I Allow Others To Publish

January 8, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, Horticultural Association, New Plants, Nursery 5 Comments

“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing” Benjamin Franklin

I choose not to be original this week. My amanuensis is engaged in a conference at some distance from me. I would rather that he speaks for himself. So, I have allowed him to post the following:

{Submitted by Kirk R. Brown for J.B. approval. Kansas City, Kansas. National Green Center.}

GWA Dr. Michael Dirr John Bartram Kirk R. Brown

Dr. Dirr stirred the audience when he appeared at the National Green Center Conference and Trade Show

John, you must put this venue on your schedule. It is imperative that you get to network with the “YOU” of this age. Michael Dirr represents everything that you would subscribe to in the present world of digital communication.

He met with us at the Garden Writers’ breakfast. His words were confrontational. He has seen, and tried, and written, and been, and experienced everything that this industry holds in esteem. He would be pragmatic and tell us there is no chance for success if he weren’t so passionate about his topic.

There were many of us at breakfast. We talked a blue streak and impressed everyone with our credentials. It was a moment of solitary elegy. As individuals, we can shine in the roomful of self-defined authors. I love this group!

GWA Breakfast National Green Center Kirk R. Brown

These writers gathered to be acknowledged for the wisdom they bring to the horticultural table. We had a wonderful breakfast.

Dr. Dirr has a horticultural glass which may be half empty, but it still brims with the sparkle of choice flowers. His is a new world of COLOR. It is loud and clear in his message. He wants this world to be full of COLOR.

National Green Center Kansas City Kirk R. Brownj

Botticelli was passionate about color and light. This was every bit of his Venus and the Birth of Spring. But she said she didn't come with shells.

Dr. Dirr doesn’t believe that we can correct our mistakes or overcome our history of failed attempts. He does not easily sign on to passing trends and fancies. It was a day of revelation.

This is the New Testament Gospel. We need to recreate who we are. We need to rewind the image of who we become when we dream. And we need to change the direction of where we want to go. He is tired of doing the same thing the same way. His challenge is to live up to our colorful promise.

It will shortly be spring. We need to see the light of this spring and take steps to make it different from those other springs of our youth. The light is still there. We just need to see it through different glasses.

In the Bleak Midwinter…

January 6, 2012 By Kirk R Brown in Garden writers, Gardening, John Bartram is at home., Landscape Design, Sustainability 2 Comments

“In the bleak midwinter, frosty winds made moan

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.”

Christina Rossetti 1872

I welcome yet another new year. It feels good to shed the old skin and attempt to dress with relish in the tighter-fitting garments that holiday feasting have created. I look about my world and think of the major events that shape it. Now is a time that reflection should transition to action.

I will tell you that a Moon Garden is one planted with specimens that bloom only in white or have foliage in grey or mottled with creamy variegation. It is a garden to be enjoyed in the moonlight. It is the first of my many garden rooms that I see when approaching my house in the evening. On All Hallow’s Eve this past year, the Moon Garden, the place of my dreamy reverie, was covered with eight inches of heavy wet snow. Everything was stressed not the least of which was the owner. These are my children and they were suffering!

The Moon Garden in a better season. The photograph was taken by a grand and glorious photographer, Karen Bussolini. She is a special friend and fellow communicator of sustainability.

Since the disappearance of that early snow and the steady decline of temperatures into our normal winter cycle, I have been impressed to see how quickly my garden has acclimated itself. It will be restored to full vigor when it surges back into bloom next spring. Still, because my thoughts are caught on the bare branches of deciduous trees, I wonder why nature would react so positively to such early abuse. Why does she continue to rebound for us?

In this season, I am actively seeking causes of why our own non-responsive nature doesn’t rebound when confronted with the abuse we heap on the natural world surrounding us. Do we ever notice when the world cries out for cures to many of its uncurable illnesses? Our sicknesses range from the common cold to the end of the polar ice caps. And I think back to those delegates in Philadelphia in the days of my youth when another cantankerous, garrulous independent named John Adams could not hold back his wrath saying, “Piddle, twiddle and resolve. When will it be done?”

I have been too long away from Philadelphia and its more genteel society to wish any one of them ill, but this should be the season to contemplate change. Just as John Adams was pushing for the start of a revolution, I am also inclined to encourage revolutionary action.

It is a season to review lists, pay debts, collect outstanding balances that are due, and make resolutions. These should include attempts to redress oversights and slights, receive inconvenienced or unreconciled relatives, improve one’s personal appearance, manners, station in life, or monetary situation and above all make more time for the things that are most fulfilling. In short, it should be a time where dreams become reality.

Many of my dreams have come to fruition. Most often that ripeness and maturity has been at a greater cost than I ever anticipated. The cost has been in money, lost time, friendships, and pieces of my soul. As yet another winter is passing, I take stock of my soul and find that it has a strength which for much I my life I thought it lacked.

So it is time to move forward with renewed strength and vigor into the wilds of nature and challenge the prevailing authority with news of change. Nature will throw off whatever blanket it finds intolerable. When nature becomes too hot, it will rid itself of even the most clinging garments.

I am on a path of collision with those who would not seek to preserve and protect the environment. The colors and shades of belief are fast disappearing. The issues become black and white. They should be as white and clear as my Moon Garden!

Narcissus bloom again in spring in the Moon Garden

Either we choose to welcome a vibrant budding spring or we shall certainly lie exposed in a permanent bleak mid winter. My choice is to go out and see how my garden is growing! Blessings on your house and health and prosperity to your person.

With the Saints of the Holidays: Part II Saint Nicholas

December 23, 2011 By Kirk R Brown in John Bartram is at home. Leave a comment

“As I drew in my head and was turning around, down the chimney Saint Nicholas came with a bound…” Clement Clarke Moore

: Before there was Santa Claus, there was St. Nick. Jolly, plump, elfin.

Saint Nicholas began his saintly life in what is now a province of Turkey. His was an age that saw sweeping changes in the geo-political world of the Roman Empire. It was during his term as Archbishop that Constantine the Great divided the empire between capitals in Rome and Constantinople. Nick was at the crossroads of history.

Perhaps it’s why history has taken such great note of him.

: Saint Nicholas has been transformed by time and customs.

During his life, he is given credit for being a very nice guy:

He gave dowries to three girls who would otherwise have remained husbandless. The three bags of gold that he dropped through their window (or down their chimney!) can still be seen today as iconic symbols outside any pawn shop door.

He resurrected three young boys out of a vat of curing spices after they’d been slaughtered by a hungry local butcher. Our own tradition of serving ham for the holidays might have started with that pork barrel.

He was responsible for taking by deception two years supply of wheat from a ship’s cargo meant for the emperor in Constantinople. By miraculously replacing the grain, the sailors successfully delivered the measured cargo but the starving people of Myra had not only sustenance but seeds for spring planting. This is a reason why he has become the patron saint of sailors.

For whatever reason, this man has become the icon of gift giving in a season of darkness. His named has become synonymous with impulse we have to give until it hurts. People even collect images of him hoping that more will be deposited on his journey around the world on Christmas Eve.

: A shrine to Saint Nicholas

He lives in a magical world of light and eternal happiness. His journey is one that we would all emulate. Whether he is named St. Nick, Sinterklaas, Santa Claus, Pere Noel, or Father Chrismas, he fills the world with joy. Let us join with his goodness this holiday and welcome in the New Year with good cheer.

: The world would be a bluer place without Saint Nicholas!

John Bartram Lives!

Just another WordPress.com site