One Sunrise, One Sunset, Two Benches, and One Announcement

This has been one of those weeks that has felt like at least two.  There have been a good number of difficult situations that have arisen this week, some anxious moments, some crankiness that I was feeling through the week.  There’s been some stuff - that might be the best way to put it.  In addition to that has been the news of the world - six of the Israeli hostages killed, more Palestinians killed in the Israeli attacks, another school shooting with two teachers and two students dead after a dad bought his 14 year old an assault rifle as a gift...sigh.  Yeah.  A lot.

In the middle of all was a night when I was heading home and was looking at the sun and the clouds in the western sky and realizing that it had the potential to be a stunning sunset.  But the basement couch and my new Star Wars PS5 game was also calling.  My brain was saying PS5, my heart and spirit were saying, go home get your camera and head back out.  Here’s who I listened to:

That line of clouds off on the right side is actually distorted with the panorama - it was this incredibly straight line of clouds from the western horizon towards the east.  The colors shifted so amazingly throughout - from the pastel blue/purple/grey at the beginning to the brilliance of the rainbow colors at the end.  And of course, Scout was soaking it in as well.

But the majesty of what we can see in creation around us wasn’t done. 

This was the next morning

Not really any words to describe how uniquely beautiful it was.  Scout summed it up pretty well with these two photos.  One of her slurping up the beauty and one of her saying “WOW!”

And finally, let’s return to our regularly scheduled bench.  Obviously there was one of the benches above but it wasn’t around 7:45 so it doesn’t officially count...Here’s how August looked (which included one of the local herons visiting several times)

And the other:

A connecting piece, at least for me, of all of this today is what I read on Thursday in the CAC daily email.  At the end of a reflection on honoring and soaking in the natural world, Brian McLaren wrote this:

I gaze with human benevolence and with a deeper human awareness … of our profound, inescapable kinship.

I gaze with love.

And somehow, the world is made a little better.¹

So, after a week that has felt like a lot, these moments and these words...These moments have made my world a little better and I hope have made the larger world a little better, even if they don’t solve everything.

And finally, an announcement/invitation.  This Sunday, in the congregation I serve, I am starting a four week sermon series that I’m calling “Through the Lens of Faith.”  Each week, we’ll be exploring the intersection between the practice of photography and aspects of following the way of Jesus.  In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting the videos of the messages if you are interested.

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

PS - Today I also finished an “event” that

MaryAnn McKibben Dana

put me on to - Basically a series of online “races” following the journeys of the characters in The Lord of the Rings. I have received a series of medals (hanging in my office) with one more to come. Scout and I finished the last of the Return of the King journeys today and when we reached the end, Scout got a crown (Aragorn’s crown that he receives at the end of Return of the King). I also joined in to celebrate as well.

1. https://cac.org/daily-meditations/looking-is-an-act-of-love/