Mundane Everyday Life

I looked beyond the back porch window sill with its collection of dead bugs and thin layer of dust. Clouds tinged in cotton-candy pink billowed above the tall trees to the south of our house. Still, I went to the basement to begin my normal morning routine.

As I sat in my wood-paneled office underground and waited on gmail to cycle up, I couldn't quit thinking about the clouds. Emails and blogs and KFRM radio reports could wait for a few minutes.

So many times, we walk past the beauty in life. I don't even remember now why I went to the porch to begin with. It's not a mandatory stop on my day. Maybe I glimpsed the unusual clouds through the bathroom window and decided to get a closer look.

Our house is surrounded by big old trees, so I grabbed my camera and told Randy I was going to drive down the road to check out the sunrise.

Many times, I'm disappointed by the photos. I can't always get the camera's eye to duplicate the beauty and majesty of the Kansas sunrise or sunset. The night before, Randy called me as he was driving a tractor toward home. A storm was blowing through and the sky was unusual. And, try as I might, I couldn't get the camera to capture the moment the same way as I was experiencing it in person. 

July 9, 2013 - Sunset

But I'm persistent. (Some might say stubborn.) So the "failed" sunset photos didn't keep me from trying to capture the sunrise yesterday morning. See, there are sometimes fringe benefits to being persistent.

July 10, 2013 - Looking to the south

A little later yesterday morning, I sat in a pickup cab in an old farmstead yard while I waited on Randy and Jake to round up heifers and a bull on 4-wheelers. I rolled down the windows and listened to the birds call to each other and heard the cottonwood leaves rustle in the wind. Birds played hide and seek in the branches.

Taking photos helps me to "see" the beauty all around me. To tell the story of our farm and our life on the County Line, I look for ways to illustrate the words with photographs.

But it doesn't take a camera in hand to notice the little things. Yesterday, as light streamed through the bathroom windows, the lace edge of the curtains made a pattern on the wall. I caught a glimpse of a bluejay as it darted across the backyard. Three baby kittens played tag in the backyard.

Beauty isn't just found in the spectacular. Neither are blessings. They just require me to open my eyes. And then count them, kind of like that old Sunday School song we used to sing in the basement of the Byers United Methodist Church:

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

View of the eastern sunrise sky - July 10, 2013