"And all Creation Sings"

I have always loved the art work of Sheri Bruck Baldwin. I am enthralled with the way she captures nature in its detail and perfection, but still conveys the beauty and color in Creation. She shows such patience in her work and is so conscious of the very small details. You get the impression that you are looking at nature through her eyes, not a mere photograph of nature, but a distilling, and pulling out the essence.

I grew up very blessed to be surrounded by family who loved nature. I remember my Great Grandmother finding a very large potato worm in the garden, and taking the time to go and get me, put him in jar with leaves to eat so I could watch him turn into a coccoon. My Grandmother and mother also had this love for all of creation, and instilled it in me from the earliest age. My brother, Todd, my mom and I have talked about Uncle Donald many times and the mark that our days spent with him left on us. My mom knew him in his younger days, describing him as drop dead gorgeous and quite a flirt. She remembers seeing him show up at their house in his fancy chauffer's uniform, looking for all the world like a movie star, at the wheel of a fancy limosene. He had also worked as a horse jockey, which made him even more romantic in my eyes!

But I have my own very special memories of visiting my Great Uncle Donald on his farm. He was probably in his 40's by this time, married and father of nearly grown children. He was still a tall, well built man of dark complexion, hinting at the Native American heritage on his father's side. He was still incredibly handsome! Perhaps it was that Native American blood that caused him to hunger for the things of the raw earth. He was a self-made naturalist who preferred to spend his time exploring nature over working in the fields. His wisdom regarding the world of nature inspired both my brother and I to love and explore it as well! We were amazed that he could read the clues when others spent their lives totally oblivious them. He would call us over and gently push his thumb into the soft ground and boost out a little toad completely hidden in dirt. Or hold a small stick over a pitted area in the dirt and have us watch a lion ant emerge to grab the bait. How did he know they were there?

He was never in a hurry to get to his "work" and always willing to spend the entire day with us, children who were at an age to mostly be considered a nuisance and sent on our way, but he treated us as fellow explorers, taking us on adventures as we examined and explored his world. He delighted to point out birds, wildlife and insects and share his insights into their particular habits and behaviors. He made the all seem incredibly fascinating! There were no creatures to large or small to escape his notice. My sense of him, even at that young age, was that I was in the presence of a 'master' who had given his life to the study of nature and the world around him. But even at my young age, I also had a real strong impression that Uncle Donald did not live up to the standards of industry and work ethic that were expected of a man of his age and responsibility.

His cattle all had names, and his farm cats followed at his heels wherever he went. He put such joy in all of the daily routines of farm life and took me into an enchanted world of his making. Memories of the cats, named after beautiful women, sitting up on their haunches begging for a squirt of milk straight from the cow's udders, of being given hard ears of field corn and taught how to shell it for the cows, rescuing and nurturing an orphaned kitten which he later gave me--much to my mother's chagrin. All of the animals loved him, and he went through his farm chores with such a slow paced delight in what he was doing that one had the feeling that to him, it was not work at all. Was he successful? Did he leave a huge inheritance for his family? Well, the answer would have to be no, but he did leave a legacy in my life, of opening my eyes to the world that God has given to us to watch over, and a lifelong respect and wonder in God's creation.