Lord bless the woods for perfect loveliness
For balm that heals the soul in care and stress!
When we lived in Halifax years ago I got to know a remarkable old man who despite approaching his 100th birthday was still mentally and physically vital. His name was Wilf Creighton and he became the Provincial Forester in Nova Scotia after spending time in Germany in the 1930's studying forestry. While he was there he learned fluent German and went to hear Hitler speak on a couple of occasions as he rose to power. Wilf also played hockey on a travelling Canadian team and had great photos of games on open-air rinks in the mountains. He also survived the Halifax Explosion as a boy and could spellbind an audience as he told the story of that fateful day.
One day Wilf drove us to his maple sugar bush operation north of Halifax and we roamed the woods (remember, almost 100!) He only fell once, and hopped back up again without a pause. Then we had a chin-wag in his cabin where I noticed the poster in the photo above on the wall. It is a prayer/poem by an American writer named Arthur Guiterman who was better known for his droll poetry.
The illustrations around the border are of many Nova Scotia creatures including moose and osprey and otters and a pileated woodpecker. The artist was William E. DeGarthe, a well-known painter in Nova Scotia in that day. He lived in Peggy's Cove and his studio is now a memorial gallery of his work.
Wilf told me that this poster was commissioned by the Department of Lands and Forests and was distributed to every school child in Nova Scotia, probably 75 years ago or more. I thought it was lovely that this prayer giving thanks for the gifts of the woods was a gift to children of the province. He kindly took his tired old original and had copies made for me and his adult children. I cherish it.
Wilf died in 2008 at the age of 104.
We have all but expunged God from the education system and this poem is sentimental, but how can we go wrong with a blessing on the woods?
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