If there was a day that would have felt good to be oblivious to the news of the world, Wednesday might have been it. Israel continued to ratchet up the tensions by bombing an area of Qatar. Polish and NATO forces shot down Russian drones over Polish airspace. Another political assassination took place today with the shooting of Charlie Kirk - this follows the assassination of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark (and the attempted assassination of another Minnesota legislator and his wife). Two students were shot and the shooter was shot as well at Evergreen high school near Denver. This follows the shooting at the end of August at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. Today’s events all took place before I took my wife to the airport late in the afternoon.
During my hour+ drive home while stuck in my car in traffic, I was feeling far from expansive. Looking through my newest podcasts, I saw
’s most recent sermon and thought that would be soul-filling - and it was. It centered on the oft-quoted passage from Amos about “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” She brought something up that I had never paid attention to - She centered on the “stream” and noting how a stream isn’t a torrent of water but often just the small, consistent, flowing movement of water. There’s more I could say about the passage but what it led me to was a recognition that, when I got home, I needed to get by some water and enter into some expansiveness.1 With everything of the day, I was tempted to just go into the basement with Scout and watch the most recent episode of Alien Earth but I knew I needed something different at that moment. So after a quick dinner, Scout and I headed out for a walk around sunset at the lake.It was expansive indeed as I listened to some of
’s and David Wilcox’s music while Scout and I walked on a perfect-temperature evening. We saw some beautiful ripples in the water and then a gorgeous and colorful sunset across the lake. Scout sat patiently most of the time I was photographing and she enjoyed getting lots of love and scratches from people walking by. I talked with another photographer who was out soaking in the same beauty of the evening. I also saw two planes fly overhead, either of which could have been carrying my wife on her flight based on the direction they were heading. Once the color had largely left the horizon, we headed back to the car and drove home. I ignored the dishes in the sink and popped in the memory card from my camera and here was some of what we saw from the ripples in the water to the breath of the sunset and the sun’s reflection on a spider web in between where the reflection looked almost like musical notes.
And then a word about this last one. As we were a little ways from the car, I saw a crumple of yellow in the grass on the side of the path. I stopped to look and it was a bright flower bloom. I don’t know if someone picked it and then dropped it or how it got there but the petals were all scrunched together. I crouched down, picked it up, straightened the petals out, and placed it gently on top of the grasses with a simple prayer for someone else to see it and be blessed by the beauty of it. And I share it here with the same wish for you.
Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed
PS - Scout of course too!
Yesterday was a really sad day as you pointed out. These are such unsettling times. But your beautiful thoughts and pictures did take away some of the rough feelings. Thank you. Enjoy your day with Scout. I hope Amy got to her destination safely. Even flying is not very carefree any more.
After looking at your beautiful photos, I came to that wonderdog, Scout. The expression on her face looks like “All is well, all will be well, and I am just happy to be here with you.”