This week at Snoqualmie Pass, where we skied, I saw these beautiful natural patterns, and couldn't help but hear the words of one of my favorite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins, in one of his finest poems: Pied Beauty. Here is an excerpt. Even readers who are not religious can appreciate the poetry of the Jesuit priest Hopkins--his innovations with the English language, and his deepfelt love for nature speak to everyone.
Glory be to God for dappled things...
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow, sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.