"A nobler want of man is served by nature, namely, the love of Beauty...The simple perception of natural forms is a delight. The influence of the forms and actions in nature, is so needful to man, that, in its lowest functions, it seems to lie on the confines of commodity and beauty. To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds himself. The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, as long as we can see far enough." __ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Sometimes I wonder as I sit looking out my living room window at the tall vertical stripes of the half brick/half tan siding of apartment 2466, where everyone’s blinds are always pulled shut and balconies always remain empty, which overlook the cracked, black and white speckled pavement of the half frozen parking lot, littered with cigarette butts and the few stray flattened pop cans, where the red 1980's Toyota 4Runner truck with the bumper sticker "I'm voting for kids" sits stationary in the same place day after day and the Dodge Shadow rests, with the missing interior and driver's side window stuck three-fourths of the way up, if maybe, just maybe, I'm missing something?
I wonder if somehow my run-on sentence isn't metaphorical for life. If those tall vertical stripes of half brick/half tan siding that block me, day after day, from seeing the sun set or the expanse of the sky , aren't slowly, without my knowing, taking from me more than I ever imagined. If maybe, they are wearing me down, deadening me to life, to passion, to beauty. "We are never tired, as long as we can see far enough." Can I? Can we? Do we have the time in our busy, time consumed world to look for the "horizon"? How easy it is to just get through the day, waking up, going to work, coming home, going to bed, that we lose those things that once gave us passion and a desire to truly live? I ask myself, "When was the last time I woke up refreshed and enthusiastic, not wanting the day to ever end? When was the last time I was so excited about life that my heart felt as if it would break through its tiny caged home? When was the last time I used my giftings or pursued something I love and felt that great surge of passion flow from me?"
I wonder if God looks down and is saddened by how little we expect from Him and all that He has to offer. If He creates a beautiful sunset, or sends the monarch floating by or places the smile on a sleeping baby and then sits on the edge of His seat, full of childlike anticipation, hardly able to contain His excitement, waiting for and desiring us to see and to recognize the beauty and life He has created for us to marvel in?
"The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds himself." Maybe that is the answer, maybe in order to become a man/woman again, in order to find ourselves we must first take the time to step out of our busy, often comfortable worlds and then we must be willing to see. To see beyond the tall brick buildings that block our view and look further to the horizon of the life God has been waiting to show us.
Sometimes I wonder as I sit looking out my living room window at the tall vertical stripes of the half brick/half tan siding of apartment 2466, where everyone’s blinds are always pulled shut and balconies always remain empty, which overlook the cracked, black and white speckled pavement of the half frozen parking lot, littered with cigarette butts and the few stray flattened pop cans, where the red 1980's Toyota 4Runner truck with the bumper sticker "I'm voting for kids" sits stationary in the same place day after day and the Dodge Shadow rests, with the missing interior and driver's side window stuck three-fourths of the way up, if maybe, just maybe, I'm missing something?
I wonder if somehow my run-on sentence isn't metaphorical for life. If those tall vertical stripes of half brick/half tan siding that block me, day after day, from seeing the sun set or the expanse of the sky , aren't slowly, without my knowing, taking from me more than I ever imagined. If maybe, they are wearing me down, deadening me to life, to passion, to beauty. "We are never tired, as long as we can see far enough." Can I? Can we? Do we have the time in our busy, time consumed world to look for the "horizon"? How easy it is to just get through the day, waking up, going to work, coming home, going to bed, that we lose those things that once gave us passion and a desire to truly live? I ask myself, "When was the last time I woke up refreshed and enthusiastic, not wanting the day to ever end? When was the last time I was so excited about life that my heart felt as if it would break through its tiny caged home? When was the last time I used my giftings or pursued something I love and felt that great surge of passion flow from me?"
I wonder if God looks down and is saddened by how little we expect from Him and all that He has to offer. If He creates a beautiful sunset, or sends the monarch floating by or places the smile on a sleeping baby and then sits on the edge of His seat, full of childlike anticipation, hardly able to contain His excitement, waiting for and desiring us to see and to recognize the beauty and life He has created for us to marvel in?
"The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds himself." Maybe that is the answer, maybe in order to become a man/woman again, in order to find ourselves we must first take the time to step out of our busy, often comfortable worlds and then we must be willing to see. To see beyond the tall brick buildings that block our view and look further to the horizon of the life God has been waiting to show us.
3 comments:
Joanna, I think you have just summed up what I have been feeling lately. Girl, if you ever want to go and hang out in the horse pasture, you are welcome to come. Sometimes, I love to go out there (when it's warmer) and just sit on the hill and watch the horses and listen to the birds. I would love to have join me. I know what you mean, the drug deals going down on our street don't make for the best scenery either. Luckily, I have an escape place. Come with me sometime :)
I, too, long for that feeling of excitement to the hay ahead. I find myself too often playing out the daily routine without stopping to enjoy life and truly enjoy what I'm living. One place that I do find a piece of life that I love and true enjoyment comes across the street from my office of all places. I take the chance whenever I can to look across the street at the many hundreds of mallards sleeping/swimming/landing/flying away and just soak it all in. It is really quite beautiful. They seem so graceful and just un-concerned with the rest of the World. While it is -10 degrees, they go along with life, swimming in the water and sleeping on the ice. True relaxation. I'm sure that it's not as simple as that, but I will continue to enjoy the simplicity of it.
Thanks Dan and Marisa! Good to hear I'm not the only one. Remind me again why we all live in the city? :)
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