Acadia Part 4 - A Place to Play and Pray In

As we were leaving Acadia yesterday morning (sniff sniff), we had stopped at the main visitor center and saw a beautiful quote as we were walking out.  From his book The Yosemite, the wise and beautiful John Muir wrote this:

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

I don’t think a single sentence could encapsulate my experience of Acadia over the last week or so.

• Beauty?  Yes Yes Yes

• Bread?  Ate too much...

• Places to play in?  Goodness yes - iron rungs, beautiful hikes, stunning vistas, rocks to climb over and on

• Pray in?  The sheer awe-some sense of this place.  All week, the CAC’s emails were centered on finding the divine in Creation.  But notably for me were the moment I shared a few days ago with the tree and then on Thursday night when I was out solo for sunset and simply sat for about 15 minutes in silence listening to the waves coming in on Sand Beach while waiting for the sunset (pictured below).

• Where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike - As I was driving back to our cabin on Thursday night, listening to my “Creation” playlist, I simply just felt such a fullness in my body and my soul from the refreshment of this beautiful place.

If you have not been to Acadia, I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially at this time of the year.  But if you haven’t or don’t think you’ll be able to, here are some further glimpses of this past week.  I pray these bring some measure of Muir’s wise words to your heart, body, spirit, and mind.

What a gift to arrive Thursday night to be treated to the gift of seeing the Aurora for the first time

The colors of the water in the different places and different light

I love how black and white can bring out details that aren't always apparent in full color

Getting close as well

Vanishing points, paths, and stunning colors. And a house that would be lovely to live in I think

And then a final full day that began seeing the first light of sunrise to hit the continental United States on the top of Cadillac Mountain and then concluded 12-13 hours later with a stunning sunset and then sheer beautiful silence at Jordan Pond in the darkness.

And here’s a video I set up for a time at Jordan Pond. The video quality is poor because of the very low light but just soak in the sheer silence and stillness of that space. I have deliberately left the sound of me walking a bit at the beginning and a few things at the end for contrast.

Once again… John Muir

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

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

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