Going Deep

Sketch of Mt. Shuksan in ink/colored pencil

Substance and depth are the meat and potatoes in life.  Contrast that with shallow, trending, superficial, and empty.  Life is too short to be taken up with whatever is light and frivolous. This doesn't negate joyfulness, rather even joy is to be pursued seriously, too!  Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman, wrote:  "Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think."  

(North Cascades)

Along those lines, Sunday I was challenged by something I read in our church bulletin about being a deep person:

"Beholding glory begs for lingering.

The modern, fast-paced world will tempt you to rush and skim.  This kind of life will make you shallow.  The world does not need more widely read, shallow people.  It needs deep people...

I mean you have seen glory---the glory of God in his Word.  You have pondered it and felt its relation to all the parts of your life.  You have been steadied and satisfied by it.

You have come home.  You are not frantic anymore.  You are at peace in the presence of God.  This is what I mean by deep.  This is what the world needs."

                                                                                  ---John Piper

                                                                                  The Pleasures of God

(Mt. Shuksan - North Cascades)

I also like the injunction in this statement by F. La Gard Smith for us to go beyond shallowness to the real treasure of true life:

"God says to us, "Dig deep.  True life is not just what you see around you, but a treasure I have hidden beneath the surface.  Dig it up and bring it into your world. You can use it to build, to beautify, to glorify.'"

Live bravely and beautifully!

Leaving It Behind

Watercolor/pen study

Welcome to fall, everyone!  Today is the official autumnal equinox for the Northern Hemisphere of the world....precisely at 10:21 a.m. (EDT). Equi means equal in Latin and nox means night.   Therefore the meaning for equinox is that there is supposedly an equal amount of day and night as the sun crosses the equator in earth's annual orbit around the sun.  We have started noticing that the nights are getting cooler, the leaves are changing colors and beginning to fall from the trees.  Bring on college football, pumpkin spice, sweaters and cozy evenings!

The great English poet William Wordsworth captured this seasonal transition very descriptively in his poem September, 1815:

While not a leaf seems faded; while the fields,

With ripening harvest prodigally fair,

In brightest sunshine bask; this nipping air,

Sent from some distant clime where Winter wields

His icy scimitar, a foretaste yields

Of bitter change, and bids the flowers beware;

And whispers to the silent birds, "Prepare...

(Woods of Northwest Arkansas)

The seasonal changes bring variety to the year.  Each has it's particular gifts.  For some of us it is hard to say goodbye to summer.  For others they are glad for relief from summer's heat.  Whether we like it or not, change is on the way!  On that note, here's a reminder about some One who never changes!  Psalm 102:25-27 writes about God's immutability or unchanging character:

Long ago You laid the foundation of the earth

and made the heavens with Your hands.

They will perish, but You remain forever;

they will wear out like old clothing.

You will change them like a garment

and discard them.

But You are always the same;

You will live forever.

                                     He is trustworthy and dependable forever!    

Live bravely and beautifully!

Some Shape of Beauty

Woodburned sketch

9" x 12"

Catching sight of a deer passing through an opening in the woods is a magical moment.

They are quiet and elusive, slipping out of view just when you get your eyes focused on them.

John Keats, in his poem "A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever", wrote that "yes, in spite of all, Some shape of beauty moves away the pall From our dark spirits....an endless fountain of immortal drink, pouring unto us from the heaven's brink."  I find that being out in nature and observing the wild life within it, seeing some shape of beauty there does wonders for my soul.

I am also reminded by the great Psalmist, King David, to have a heart that thirsts for God like the deer longing for streams of water when it is parched from being chased in the hunt. Nothing quenches life's thirsts like drinking from the fount of living water, which is what Jesus Christ offers.  

Live bravely and beautifully!

Stand and Stare

(8" x 10" oil study of Loveland, Colorado ranch)

This coming weekend finds us taking time off to celebrate the Labor Day Holiday.  Webster's defines labor as the expenditure of physical or mental effort, especially when difficult or compulsory.  So we take a break from that this weekend to cease from labor and to honor the sanctity of good, honest work.  To stimulate that transition, let's look at a poem about leisure.  Leisure is the freedom from work or duties.  Here is a good way to use your leisure this weekend...

Leisure

What is this life, if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this, if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.  

---William Henry Davies

Welsh Poet

Winter Water

16" x 20"

Acrylic

"As one sits here in summertime and listens to the cuckoo

and all the other bird songs,

the crackling and buzzing of insects,

as one gazes at the shining colors of flowers,

doth one become dumbstruck

before the Kingdom of the Creator."

                                                                   ---Carl Linnaeus

                                                                       Swedish botanist, zoologist

                                                                       Father of Taxonomy

Live bravely and beautifully!