Let There Be Beauty

I am borrowing the title of this post from Rebecca Reynolds, who wrote the words, and Ron Block who wrote the music on one of my favorite CD's, Walking Song. The words and tune go through my mind often, but this afternoon I lost them, for a while, anyway. All of a sudden the nation's and the world's pain became overwhelming and I was at a complete loss to know how to respond, both to other's pain and to my own. I felt paralyzed in the knowing. 

 I thought a bit about writing, but what could I possibly have to say that would change anyone's situation or lift anyone's spirits? The kinds of things I write about seemed superfluous, almost a luxury and a voice in the back of my mind condemned my best efforts, "Why would you think that writing about the natural world would do anyone any good, anyway?!" Why, indeed.

In what felt like desperate attempt to reconnect with who I am and the life I have been given to live, I grabbed my camera and went outside to document (and maybe prove to myself) that there is, indeed, still beauty to be found in the world. Perhaps some will consider this an escape, a way of dulling or turning away from the hurts that seem to surround us, right now. Perhaps it is, but I have found that, at the times when my own life felt like it was falling apart, that it was the outdoors and the beauty I found there that helped hold me together and gave me hope that things would not always remain as they were in the moment. This afternoon, I did the same.

And so, I offer these glimpses into the world around where I live, in hopes that they will bring comfort or smiles to any who need both. The beauty found here doesn't change circumstances, but it reminds me that God is at work, and that we are not forsaken. 

The first, above, is simply the house in which we live, filled with flowers on the porch and the playing of sunlight and shadows.

Zebra swallowtail and carpenter bee on Virginia mountain mint

A pot of humble purple coneflowers, waiting to go into the ground

Visitors in the backyard

A welcoming haven-winterberries for birds and white snakeroot for pollinators

Up close

White wood asters in the front yard

And flowers for a friend's going away , an expression of love and appreciation

And, in case you are wondering about the title, the refrain from their song....
"Let there be beauty for beauty is good, the made and the making and the bliss understood. 
 Let there be beauty for beauty is free. Go swim in the waters, go drink from the stream"

You Are Here - A Prayer of Thanksgiving from Trail Wood

                                                   
Are you with me now, now, even when I fail to acknowledge you? When I am so immersed in the glory of the place to which you have brought me, when I am so taken with the gift, so as to forget the Giver...Are you here?

Do you delight in my delight in your works? For even long millennia after the land was first formed, through all the changes over time, your hand prints surround me.
As the very air I breathe or the light that fills the meadow, your presence,
Your very Self, is here.

How human-like to forget, to pretend that what you have granted can take your place.
And yet, do you not invite me into remembering? Do I not fall asleep at night, finally in the darkness, when I can no longer see the woodlands, or the words upon the page,
thanking You?

There is this dance we do with you, is there not? We ask, sometimes we receive, and then, unimaginably, we forget that we asked. And, in your mercy, you remind us again and again, that we are yours. And You are here.