Beauty as Bread: Mount Rushmore

 

A park ranger at Mount Rushmore shared a 1912 quote from naturalist and author John Muir during the evening flag and lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. I didn't have pen and paper, but I jotted down enough notes on my phone that I could find the quote later:

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. 

John Muir, 1912

John Muir believed there was healing and sanctuary in beautiful places. We certainly found that to be true as we experienced the moving Mount Rushmore ceremony at twilight. Randy had spent the day at the hospice with his brother, Lyle. But he wanted to attend the ceremony.

We've been to Mount Rushmore twice before, but this would provide a different glimpse at the monument.  (See photos from those daytime trips here and here.)

 

There was still snow on the ground from an early-season storm as we nestled under a blanket to wait for the start. The cold and Covid combined to reduce the crowd for the ceremony, which is held beginning in late May through September 30 each year.  That made it easy enough to social distance.

Sunset doesn't occur directly behind the Founding Fathers. But the sunset sky still provided a splash of color as the sun sank below the Black Hills of South Dakota. 

Before it started, the park ranger said that veterans would be invited to come to the stage at the end to retire the flag for the evening. Looking at the small crowd, she was a little concerned, adding that veterans who weren't able to make the trek to the stage could send a representative.

But there was no need to worry. When she asked the veterans to congregate, 34 men and women streamed from the bleachers to the stage.

"The Star Spangled Banner" never sounded so beautiful as it did as our voices drifted upwards toward the lighted Founded Fathers. No, not every voice was in tune. It certainly didn't have the flourishes and frills added by most soloists these days at football stadiums or baseball venues throughout the country.

Instead, strangers from every region of the country sang together with one voice piercing the cold night air. With the giant flag slowly descending, the veterans stood at the feet of the flagpole, hands over their heart. The Founding Fathers seemed to peer wisely onto the scene. Considering the current atmosphere of political contention and intolerance for others, it was a moving moment in time.

Two days later, as we left Rapid City to head toward home, we decided to take a winding road on the outskirts of Custer State Park. It was another overcast day, but as we walked up to the viewing point, a little beam of sun highlighted the mountain. I didn't realize at first that I was looking at Mount Rushmore.

But as I used the Zoom on my camera, good old George, Thomas, Teddy and Abe popped into my viewfinder. It was another reminder of celebrating history and beauty.

 

It would do us all good to remember both.

In the Eye of the Beholder

A Time to Think

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature–the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.

 –Rachel Carson

That was a message from an email devotional I saved awhile back. I thought about it again as I looked through photos I've taken in the past couple of weeks.

There is beauty to be found far off the beaten path ...

Down a dirt road in Central Kansas

 

... and in carefully-cultivated gardens.

Ted Ensley Gardens, Topeka, KS

 

Lake Shawnee - Topeka

It's just a matter of taking time to appreciate them - whether a man-made lake ...

... or a lazy tributary to a Kansas river in the middle of nowhere.

 

One recent evening, we drove to the Ninnescah pasture to check cattle and fences. That mission accomplished, I asked to stop at the bridge to watch the water gently ruffle the grasses along the banks.

A closer look revealed that other creatures also enjoy a water view!

Then I asked for the drive home to include a road nestled between century-old trees.

The light wiggled its way through the green canopy of trees, leaving a lackadaisical pattern of light and shadows. 

 

There was no one around except for an overflow crowd of mosquitoes. 

But as much as I enjoy the simply beauty of a Kansas country road, I can appreciate well-cultivated gardens. (Not that I find those at home!)

Maybe my pleasure in being at the Ted Ensley Gardens in Topeka had just as much to do with the company I was keeping!

It's getting easier to capture good photos of the girls.

Brooke - almost 6

 

Kinley - 8 1/2

This time, I was more interested in photographing people than flowers. (See another flower-forward visit to Ted Ensley Gardens at this link.)

 These three had to stop at every map to make a plan.

I wasn't the only one being inspired by the setting. Kinley carefully arranged her little sister for a snapshot. 

And she snapped plenty of photos on her mom's phone so she could show her dad, who stayed behind to mow.

 

But she also borrowed my camera for a few shots. I'm thinking 4-H photography may be in her future!

I did manage to find a couple of non-human creatures in the gardens. A butterfly didn't seem to care that I wanted it to alight on the flowers for a still shot. Most of my efforts captured the blur of its wings. But I did manage to get one in focus - though it certainly wouldn't win any prizes. 

     

The squirrel was too busy eating to worry about what I was doing.

While we enjoyed the sidetrip to the gardens, our trip to Topeka was mainly a mission to deliver desks for the girls. The girls' school will begin with a combination of in-person and online learning. Brooke and the next door neighbor will begin kindergarten in the playroom on their stay-at-home days. They have plans to add a colorful border of letters above their desks.

And, by the time we left, Kinley already had some items on the desk she'll use at home to begin third grade.

Bonus? The desks were free. You can't beat that - especially since it seems that desks are the new "toilet paper" of the pandemic, as Jill says. 

Maybe that devotional would come in handy for students, parents and teachers trying to navigate this new way of doing things. It's worth looking for beauty everywhere - from unmanicured roads to tended gardens to the people in our path.

God's Handwriting

Sunrise, September 17, 2019 - Happy Birthday, Jill!

A Time to Think

Never lose an opportunity for seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting, a wayside sacrament.—Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Time to Act

Open your arms to beautiful moments and they will come to you.

A Time to Pray

Today God, let me shine for You.

From a Guideposts email devotional

I like to bracket my days with beauty on both ends.

From sunrise skies in the east ...

to sunset skies in the west.

Most of the time, I witness these spectacles by myself with cicadas' buzz as a white-noise undertone. But one evening this week, I had some company. When I saw the pretty clouds and setting sun, I drove to a neighbor's windmill, a vantage point I've used before when featuring the western sky.

When I arrived, the cattle were congregated at the windmill, the bovine equivalent to an evening cocktail hour, I suppose.

I was the party crasher. And they were curious. They kept creeping closer ...

... and closer ...

... and closer ...

 

 ... until I had several standing at the gate. I don't know whether they thought I had grain or hay. But I arrived at the party empty-handed (other than my camera, of course), so we just had some polite conversation before I departed.

I made a couple of other stops before going home ...

... watching the day's light dwindle away like a cowboy riding into the distant sunset.

And I was again reminded of Ralph Waldo Emerson's words:

Never lose an opportunity
 for seeing anything that is beautiful; 

for beauty is God's handwriting,

 a wayside sacrament.

Beauty in the Cracks

 

The pink petunia seemed to grow right out of the concrete as I pulled into a parking spot on Main Street Stafford.

Just a few yards away, its compatriots were gathered demurely in the red-brick planter box. Since early spring, those petunias have been growing right where the conscientious, community-minded gardeners planted them. The flowers brighten and beautify Stafford's downtown. And they are doing their job admirably. All up and down Main Street, flowers bloom in the planter boxes, colors bright and cheery,  waving in the Kansas breeze.

Since springtime, I've noticed the planter boxes on my way into the Post Office or Stafford Mercantile or even just driving down the street. But, honestly, they remained in my peripheral vision. They were there. They were pretty. But, I didn't give them all that much thought or attention.

 

But, as I pulled into the diagonal parking space, this escapee caught my imagination. How did it get there? Did a seed float a few yards away and take root in the miniscule spot of soil found in a sidewalk crack? I was sufficiently intrigued to take a few photos.

I kept thinking about the little flower bravely growing in the concrete crack, long after I left Stafford for home. I thought the pink petunia was unique. But, when I was in town again the next day, I noticed even more of these "escapee" flowers. 

And it made me think about finding beauty in the cracks - in the places where you least expect it.

We know the world is cracked.

• A mass shooting mows down worshipers in a South Carolina church.
• Passionate people can't agree with one another at a church conference. Both sides believe they are representing Jesus and his teachings. 
• Friends mourn loved ones.
• Others struggle with scary diagnoses. 
• Machinery breaks down - again.

I could go on and on.

Yes, the world is cracked. Sometimes, like the little pink petunia, we feel like we're all alone, clinging precariously to life in less-than-ideal circumstances. But, if we look around, we might find others standing in the cracks, just like those hardy flowers that find a way to bloom from concrete. 

It requires us to STOP.

It requires us to intentionally find the beauty in bad situations. I'm not saying there is beauty when  innocent people are murdered or when people disagree or when we deal with the 101 frustrations of living in this imperfect world.

But maybe the beauty is in how we respond to one another in love and compassion. Maybe the beauty is actually seeing the miracles all around us.

A Time to Think

All the world is an utterance of the Almighty.
Its countless beauties, its exquisite adaptations,
all speak to you of Him.
–Phillips Brooks, clergyman and author

A Time to Act

Open your heart to the beauty that surrounds you.

A Time to Pray

Dear Lord, please help me to see the beauty of every day.

The devotional (in blue) was from a daily email from Guideposts.

Shine On

A Time to Think

Let God's promises shine on your problems.
 –Corrie ten Boom, author
From a Guideposts email devotional

I'm leaving this morning to go to Wichita for the Great Plains Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Beginning mid-morning and continuing through Saturday at noon, laity and clergy representatives from all UM Churches in Kansas and Nebraska will gather to worship, learn, conduct business and debate tough issues. I'm Stafford UMC's lay delegate to conference, and I've spent the last few weeks reading a 115-page workbook and pondering a bunch of supplemental materials.

Though the theme for this annual conference is "Through many, One," some of the issues we'll debate have the potential to be as destructive and divisive as a thunderstorm when it unleashes its fury on top of us.

Still, I hope to find beauty, too, in the worship services and in my interactions with others, and yes, even in listening to passionate people work through issues to find solutions pleasing to God.

Taken Tuesday, June 9

I leave behind wheat fields quickly transitioning toward harvest under a hot summer sun and blustery southern winds.

Taken Sunday, June 7, but the flash made the green show up more.

And  I pray the conference, too, will ultimately harvest a spirit of cooperation through the Son and the winds of the Holy Spirit. 

This video is more for me than any readers I have today. I may need to hear the rush of wind through the wheat stalks and listen to the birds singing while I'm in the big city. Home is my happy place.

I'm taking a hiatus from the blog while I'm in Wichita. See you next week, when we'll likely start harvest, if the weather cooperates.