"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."

 

I have been going through some old photographs and what I found was a surprising delight. Many of them were of old memories, some of when my husband and I just started dating and others of my family.  But most of them were beautiful scenes from New Mexico. I was overjoyed as I looked through them. I thought, "No wonder I have always been a lover of beauty and the outdoors...I grew up around it, completely submerged in a vast array of it all the time!" The views, the sunsets, the unique wildlife, plants, and stunning scenes were on constant display everywhere I went. I remember growing up and discovering that the beauty and wonders never ceased- there were new and old wonders to be photographed, drawn, explored, and enjoyed every single day.

The last time I visited home, I shared with my mom that I felt as if I was having a reunion with someone I had greatly missed, like a dear friend I had not seen in far too long. It was of the beauty of my home that I was referring to...and how it had a unique way of drawing my soul ever closer to the One I love most. The beauty was along with everything (and everyone) else that I had been so excited to visit again. Like my beloved parents and old friends, beauty held its place as something I desperately needed to spend some time with again. My current home at the time, of course,  did not lack its own displays of beauty...but the beauties of the southwest hold a very special place in my heart.

It is interesting to think about how I, and perhaps others, would (as a normality of life) become desensitized or take for granted the beauty around me...day after day growing up in such a place. After all, there are out-of-this-world sunsets almost every single evening, magnificent stars shining oh so brightly at night, and sun....lots and lots of sun, almost every single day, warming your skin and spirit. However, my repetitious experience of these things never dulled me. I could see how it could. But for me, I discovered that the more I took it all in, the more I fell in love with it. Every time I would sit out on the porch to watch the sunset, I fell in love with it more than I did the day before. I began realizing that in some interesting way, a relationship had been growing between myself and these beauties...but also through them---a powerful connection to God.

A window of time stands out to me as one of the most special times in my life- experiencing this connection. It was after living on the east coast for a few years and during the two years preceding my marriage and move to the Midwest. I was going through a time of great discouragement and illness, and I found incredible healing through this newly revived relationship with beauty and its Creator. I, almost on a subconscious level, escaped into beauty day, even if just for a short walk along the arroyo blanketed with spring flowers. The passionate sunsets and bold blue skies, the prickly cacti and silly lizards and all the singing birds and the steadfast...oh, so resolute mountains!...these began nurturing me in a curious yet powerful way. It was like they were my companions, soothing my heart...delving into my pain and my deepest longings. The more time I spent letting it all wash over me, the more fulfilling it became...and the more I was compelled to return again and again. I found so much rest and peace...and romance there. And I could not help but give in to the Spirit compelling me to it...and to Him. 

I often wonder why I am such a beauty lover....why beauty overtakes my heart this way. I am sure it is much the same for those who love music. They love listening to it, writing it, singing it, and dancing to it. Music reaches them deep down into their inmost part and creates a joy that simply cannot be silenced. Beauty for me, must be my niche..my design...and I can't help but embrace it.  I will  look upon it, think about it, draw it, photograph it, re-create it, dream about it, be inspired, joyed, and healed by it forever, and wherever I am. I cannot escape it...it lures me in when I am walking down the road...as I am memorized by the strong branches of the sycamore tree or the tender flight of the snowflake.

God surely created me this way and along with all the other "beauty-lovers" out there. It is interesting to think about how much more He must love beauty and lovely things than I do. The power and connection within in it is indeed a great mystery...as is the beauty itself , partaking in relationship with God in a way...as poetically put by the psalmist, "The heavens declare the glory of God." His majesty, power and wonder are on display through them- they dance and shine so radiantly for Him, by Him, through Him. How wonderfully beautiful He must be!

Well, I can't go without sharing just a few of the beautiful scenes I photographed during my special  two year return to New Mexico....very special memories for me. I hope you enjoy them. 

 

 

 Two of my favorite things...a valley full of flowers...and a rainbow!

A completely unedited sunset and view from our porch...breathtaking!

 I am drawn to the poem by John Keats, for his same love of beauty and nature-and its power to soothe, undo, romance, and fill the soul.  

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

Nor do we merely feel these essences
For one short hour; no, even as the trees
That whisper round a temple become soon
Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon,
The passion poesy, glories infinite,
Haunt us till they become a cheering light
Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast
That, whether there be shine or gloom o'ercast,
They always must be with us, or we die.

Therefore, 'tis with full happiness that I
Will trace the story of Endymion.
The very music of the name has gone
Into my being, and each pleasant scene
Is growing fresh before me as the green
Of our own valleys: so I will begin
Now while I cannot hear the city's din;
Now while the early budders are just new,
And run in mazes of the youngest hue
About old forests; while the willow trails
Its delicate amber; and the dairy pails
Bring home increase of milk. And, as the year
Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer
My little boat, for many quiet hours,
With streams that deepen freshly into bowers.
Many and many a verse I hope to write,
Before the daisies, vermeil rimmed and white,
Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees
Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,
I must be near the middle of my story.
O may no wintry season, bare and hoary,
See it half finished: but let Autumn bold,
With universal tinge of sober gold,
Be all about me when I make an end!
And now at once, adventuresome, I send
My herald thought into a wilderness:
There let its trumpet blow, and quickly dress
My uncertain path with green, that I may speed
Easily onward, thorough flowers and weed."