Yellowstone Wildlife & Limited Capacity

What caught my eye in Yellowstone National Park last week, along with all the stunning scenery, were these two dignified little schnauzers.  They seemed to do everything in timed tandem...hilarious!  They indulged me politely in conversation and a pose.  Their fur was coal black in the sunlight as they sat on a log bench along the south rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  Perhaps they were a bit edgy about the high bear alert in the park that week!

My travels the past week have taken me from the monumental Scottsbluff area of Nebraska

 to Jackson, Wyoming where I got to tour the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Grand Teton range,

 Yellowstone National Park,

 and across Montana, Idaho, and Washington into mountainous British Columbia.  So many miles and so many thoughts to think as I beheld and drove!

I was overcome much of the trip with the awareness that I just couldn't grasp all that I was seeing.  I felt so inadequate to comprehend the beauty and the vastness of all that was before me.  I kept trying to absorb as much as I could, but was left with the sense that I couldn't get it all within me.

  When faced with such immensity, beauty, and grandeur we come face to face with the reality of our limited capacity to enter into full joy, comprehension, and sensory experience of what we are beholding.  It is then that I am reminded that we are made for eternity.  There is always that yearning, that haunting for something more that lurks in our earthly experiences of beauty and truth.  We know too well that we are made for something more. 

 These are the avenues in this world that point us towards the Creator of all this beauty and that to enjoy relationship with Him is the highest and most deeply satisfying experience for the human soul.  All I could do as I beheld this grandeur was to be in the moment and express my heartfelt worship to God.  Someday I WILL have the capacity to enjoy fully forever what I struggle to get just a small grip on now!  All I can say is "Bring it on!"

I asked a tourist to take this last photo of me at a meaningful scene at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  This particular location is called Artists' Point and is where Thomas Moran painted some of his awesome paintings of Yellowstone.  

It is a challenge and reminder to me to continue to study, research, and practice techniques so that I, too, can bring the beauty of this world before many people's eyes as Thomas Moran did.  In a world that is currently in such turmoil, we need to be reminded of better things and refreshed by that!

Be brave and courageous!