Morning calm, Oriole. Sky perfectly clear, but early a fleet of dapples float by, to be followed by white edged quivering thunderheads. At noon heat is terrific. After dinner & I sit on back porch to sketch thunderheads. In drawing them, we are amazed more than ordinarily with the rapid changes they undergo. I could not keep up with them and had to rely on my impression. When I had finished, my sketch had no more resemblance to the cloud than if I had never looked at it.
Meanwhile storm forming in west which now blotted out sunlight. Seen thru (sic) openings in the intensely black advance clouds sunlit thunderheads were thrice beautiful. Thunder was almost continuous Another storm to north. Storm here very light tho (sic) rain fell violently for a few minutes. There is a big silver maple on High St. which seems more susceptible to the wind than the other trees. The slightest breeze sends its frond-like boughs waving wildly. Seen thru (sic) a streaky rain soaked air, the trees against the dissolving sky had added beauty. The supreme moment of the storm is when the whole sky is a smooth unbroken grey and the rain is falling heavily downward.
How quickly we are apt to measure the world by our horizon! I said the whole sky where probably my east & west horizons are scarce half a mile apart!
When the rain first came I rudely guessed with my eye that it fell at an angle to the earth of less than 25°.
How quickly we may note a difference in the thunder when the storm is passing. It has a more hollow sound.
Our early blue grapes are ripening and are covered with a white frosty bloom - the white August haze has condensed on them.
True Solomons seal berries are already blue while those of false are dotted with red.
Sky all afternoon was cast over with dark stretches (sic) of clouds - evening came unusually early.
The August sunset!
It is as if the glory of October is prophesied for us in the August sunset sky.
There were two distinct sunsets tonight, the first was able because of its strong vivid colors & contrasts; the second because of its weirdness (sic).
Commencing with a few yellowish streaks in a break in the clouds, the sunset developed rapidly into a mass of vivid color that extended along two-thirds of the horizon as tho (sic) several suns were setting at various points.
A long smooth banks (sic) of clouds extended from a point in the west to the northeast. In the west its lower part was a bright brick-red which blended wonderfully into the grey. Beyond it to the south the sky was covered with broken clouds, some of which were a vivid orange; thru (sic) one small opening the sky showed a metallic cold pale blue, like ice. The bright red color extended all along the horizon far to the northeast. This color faded quickly.
Then came the “second” sunset. In the northwest were filmy streaks of clouds which were all tones of mustardy yellow & grey, a weird (sic) color higher up showed that peculiar shade of icy blue; a queer contrast to the warm yellow. Above this was ragged yellow cloud. This lasted long and faded slowly, becoming more wonderful with each minute. At one time, pale pink streaks came for a few moments, a striking color for that blue; at the last low down was a spot of bright metallic yellow. As the yellow faded, the cold clear blue increased and made all kinds of wonderful combinations with the yellowish grey.
It was 8:15 when the last color was gone.
The viewing of such a spectacle fills the observer with an intense feeling which seems indeed to choke him and every utterance to that feeling seems stilted an unworthy and yet he feels he is doing his duty to himself if he is silent.
It is at such times that one feels most deeply reverent. Perhaps that is why an utterance of such a feeling falls flat. True reverence for God is not to be uttered. Any discussion of worship for the Creator is cheapening. This is true also of love and friendship.
Thought should be purely isolated. I do not mean that men should go off by themselves to think their own thoughts because the next man has a different kind of thought. Let men freely exchange & discuss their thoughts; but let them not bind themselves into organizations with ironclad pledges to think the same thoughts. An organization is death of original thought. Originally no two persons are alike, either inwardly or outwardly. People may by long usage & continual squelching of the inner man and conforming to accepted thought lose their personality. Why must this be? Why should not each man worship God in his own way? Why should not each man have his own God. When man holds communion with God, let him do so when alone. If my neighbor selects one day out of the week to pay his homage to God, why need I? If my neighbor kneels, when he prays, why need I kneel, or indeed pray? I am inclined to believe when men kneel together, it is not so much to show God their reverence, but to show each other they have(?) such a reverence. Concern over a fellow man’s opinion of our way of showing reverence to God, takes every bit of sincerety (sic) out of it. When man at last feels the need of converse with his creator, he does not care what other men think how he does it, or how often. Great artists neither care for or think of fame, or the critics opinion, which is the definition of his success. An artist must be alone to paint. Is not an artist seeking God? Ostensibly he is seeking truth & beauty (the two coincide) but finding them, or approaching them, he has found God.
Charles E Burchfield, August 20, 1914