Beauty

I grew up in a valley. Almost every morning, the rain would shroud the verdant mountains with its light, cool gray, and the clouds would gently brush the tops with their ethereal touch. The sun would eventually peek over the ridge, flooding the valley with a rich, warm, golden light. The wind would run through the trees, sweeping away the humidity before the heat could settle between the limbs. And if you breathed it all in, you would smell all of it at once; the beauty and wonder of the life all around you.

We have sleek, high tech computers and iPads, state of the art buildings and furniture, smooth cars that run with little more than a whisper. We busy ourselves with so many things that we loose track of it all... sure, these do have a certain beauty to them, but do you ever sit in the middle of it all and have that feeling as if there were more? If only you could reach higher? As if there were something to be desired on the top shelf of the kitchen but you were too small to reach up and grab it?

Perhaps we've forgotten what beauty is.

I think this is what we've forgotten nowadays; we've forgotten the beauty of simple things. From the grace of the rolling hills to the magic of a humble dandelion, God's wonder can be found everywhere. We await grand miracles and wonders with such bated breath that we don't think to look at the miracles right under our noses. We try to build a tower to reach the unknown upon the highest shelf, but don't realize that we don't need to try so hard. There is something in the stillness if we take the time to quiet our selves in our busy lives. God is waiting there. He is always waiting.

Albert Einstein once said that there were two ways to live: to see nothing as a miracle, and to see everything as a miracle.

"The Garden of the Soul"

Gardening does such wonders for your soul.

Doesn't it just give you an angsty feeling when your little garden is filled with dead leaves and twigs burying all your poor struggling plants, random bugs crawling through the misplaced mounds of dirt, and weeds parade in clumps? Well, it does for me anyway...

So this morning, I needed something to do; something to take my mind off all the dizziness of life. The past couple of days at work have been difficult and it was becoming hard to swallow words and keep myself from saying things that couldn't be taken back. I felt like the poor, neglected garden outside, pleading for a good blast of wind to carry all my dead leaves and twigs far, far away. After standing there for a few seconds, I snapped out of the fantasy that it actually would happen. I picked up a rake and began to comb the leaves out of the strands of green grass that were just beginning to grow.

As I continued to clean up the garden, it slowly began to reemerge before my eyes. I could hear the grass sing God's praises, happy to be able to reach up to Him; the buried plants breathed the fresh morning air; the light revisited the green and brightened it in vibrant patches. The entire garden danced freely with the wind.

There was a hint of Paradise in the garden, and after what was unnecessary was removed, a light rain began to fall. The grass could finally reach out and be refreshed by the cool mist, and the little drops of God's grace could be taken in.

"Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord;
Praise and exult Him above all forever." ~Daniel 3:76

"Be satisfied with Me"

I posted something about waiting a while back, and (re) found this poem and thought it might go well with it.

God needs to be our first love. After all, if we cannot truly learn to love Love Himself, how can we begin to truly love another?

Be Satisfied with Me
by St. Anthony of Padua

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone,

To have a deep soul relationship with another,

To be loved thoroughly and exclusively.

But to a Christian, God says, "No, not until you are satisfied,

Fulfilled and content with being loved by me alone,

With giving yourself totally and unreservedly to me.

With having an intensely personal and unique relationship with me alone.

Discovering that only in me is your satisfaction to be found,

Will you be capable of the perfect human relationship,

That I have planned for you.

You will never be united to another

Until you are united with me.

Exclusive of anyone or anything else.

Exclusive of any other desires or longings.

I want you to stop planning, to stop wishing, and allow me to give you

The most thrilling plan existing . . . one you cannot imagine.

I want you to have the best. Please allow me to bring it to you.

You just keep watching me, expecting the greatest things.

Keep experiencing the satisfaction that I am.

Keep listening and learning the things that I tell you.

Just wait, that's all. Don't be anxious, don't worry

Don't look around at things others have gotten

Or that I have given them

Don't look around at the things you think you want,

Just keep looking off and away up to me,

Or you'll miss what I want to show you.

And then, when you're ready, I'll surprise you with a love

Far more wonderful than you could dream of.

You see, until you are ready, and until the one I have for you is ready,

I am working even at this moment

To have both of you ready at the same time.

Until you are both satisfied exclusively with me.