The Beauty of an "Awe Walk" by Sandi Somers

I awakened early and felt an urge to go for a pre-dawn walk that morning of June 14, 1995, to one of my favourite Calgary nature areas—Weaselhead. It was a thickly-treed area that I so enjoyed hiking every so often. The sky was clouded over and there was a possibility of rain, so I wore my raincoat.

As I began my walk, I breathed in the fresh earthy fragrance and absorbed the idyllic atmosphere of trees whose leaves had recently burst into their green June fullness.

Raindrops began to fall. Softly they landed on tree leaves—music to my ears. I pulled my jacket hood over my head and heard the gentle drops.

Just then a least flycatcher with his characteristic "che-bek" began to sing beside my pathway. He was hidden among the tree leaves and I had to carefully search to spot this tiny brown bird, smaller than even a house wren (photo and song here).

Something about that beautiful moment inspired such great awe that I couldn't express my feelings. Eventually I discovered that the Psalms would give me words for what I could not say. I especially loved Psalm 104, savoring the eloquent word choices and imagery. The beauty and grandeur of God almost took my breath away.

O Lord my God, how great you are!

You are robed with honor and majesty.

You are dressed in a robe of light….

You make springs pour water into the ravines,

So streams gush down from the mountains.

They provide water for all the animals…

The birds nest beside the streams

And sing among the branches of the trees…

My walk that morning has been an example of what Professor Virginia Sterm called an "awe walk", or a beauty excursion, walking in nature with the intention of tapping into something that brings a sense of wonder.

(NOTE: A beauty excursion can also be to other places—an art gallery of majestic paintings, a museum, a bookstore where you find a gem, a Christmas craft sale where you discover beautiful wood carvings…)

The question is: How can we capture beauty in our writing through nature “awe walks” or other beauty excursions? Writing can deepen our experience as we take photos, journal, write a poem, compose a song, or add to an article. Here are several angles:

- Engaging our senses sharpens our attention and “thickens” our writing, to use Carol Shields’ concept. Writing the scene as fully as possible makes a good story that captivates our readers’ attention and imagination.

- Including metaphors and unique verbs improves the variety and quality of our sentences and makes our writing sing.

- Marvelling on the wonder gives us an emotional boost. Psychologists say that wonder, joy, beauty, and awe bring down such things as anxiety, depression, stress, anger, and fatigue while increasing restorative effects such as vitality, vigor, and positive emotions. As we give ourselves a moment to feel joy and calm or excitement and amazement, we can attempt to write our emotional responses in these transcendent moments.

- Giving time to write of our gratitude and worship our Creator God is a necessary component. As we delight in our Lord, the beauty of nature and of our relationship with Jesus flourishes in our lives and writing. Doing so enables us to discover a spiritual meaning, a universal truth that our readers can relate to. William Blake wrote an eloquent poem on discovering the universal truth when he wrote:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

The author Harold Best advised: “Remember that God makes things beautiful from the inside out…elegant …Join up with the mind of the One in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”[i]

As we write to engage beauty, our lives can have a great impact. I’m reminded of someone who said that the testimony of a survivor of Cambodia’s Killing Fields was “something beautiful for God.”

God is developing us into a beautiful work of art and faith. A faith that fuels trust and hope. Pay attention to how you experience God’s presence and tell how beautifully He is working in your life.

Sandi Somers’ writing passion is to help readers grow their faith in Jesus, including their vision of what God wants them to be and do. She writes of her love of nature, gardening, travel, and family in several genres—devotionals, personal essays, and Biblical fiction. Sandi lives in Calgary, Alberta, the delightful city between the Rocky Mountains and the Prairies.

[i] Michael Card, (Scribbling in the Sand, Downers Grove, IL, IVP, 2002), 123-124.

Top Image by Pixabay

Beauty Beyond Sight ~ Valerie Ronald

 

How do I convey beauty to one whose eyes can no longer see? An irreversible eye disease has recently robbed my grandson of his vision. From now on his 25 years of visual data will be the only images stored in his memory. Though he is learning to experience beauty with his remaining senses, visual beauty can only be conveyed to him second-hand by the spoken word of another who sees it. 

 

 Already the rest of his senses are adapting. His brain has the remarkable ability to repurpose itself, reallocating the visual cortex to process information from hearing, touch, and smell. As saddened as I am by his loss of vision, I am also challenged to find ways to describe beauty to him that he can interpret through his other senses. His loss of vision causes me to view visual beauty from a unique perspective, searching for metaphors that capture the essence of what I see and translate it to a different physical sense. 

˗˗The sky is as piercingly blue as the clear song of a meadowlark. 

˗˗Her hair curls around her face like the softness of a summer breeze on your cheek

˗˗The swift flow of a mountain stream is as brisk as the scent of a pine forest. 

Jesus was a master of using visual metaphors to describe spiritual truths. He chose appealing illustrations from nature to convey spiritual concepts to temporal humans. He said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10 NIV). As He spoke these words, the woman might have imagined a spring of fresh, clear water bubbling up that would never run dry˗˗a beautiful picture of the everlasting spiritual life offered to her by Jesus, the Messiah.

 

As a writer who believes in Jesus Christ, my desire is to find descriptive words to convey His beauty to those who are spiritually blind. His beauty is found in His perfect character, His loving purposes, and His exact representation of His Father in heaven. The infinite facets of who He is offer me endless opportunities to describe Him, so those who cannot see Him now will hopefully open their spiritual eyes to see how beautiful He truly is.

 

In coming to terms with his new physical reality, my grandson is developing the ability to know beauty without the means of sight. Already he experiences beauty in the sound of a loved one’s voice, in the touch of a child’s hand, in the scent of rain on the breeze. I pray He will also find beauty in the love of His Saviour.

Valerie Ronald writes from an old roll top desk in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with her tortoiseshell cat for a muse. A graduate of Langara College School of Journalism, she writes devotionals, fiction and inspirational prose. Her purpose in writing is to encourage others to grow in their spiritual walk. 

Beauty and Writing by Carol Harrison

What brings pleasure to my senses? As I pondered the prompt for this month's blog post, I scrolled through photos from the years gone by. Beauty in everyday moments filled the screen and brought wonderful memories to mind. It filled my senses as I could remember the scent of a flower, the chill of the air, the noise of rapids, and see the majesty of the rugged peaks. 

Beauty found in moments of sunrise through the trees or across a snow covered field, colouring the sky with vibrant colours as a new day began. I paused at photos of fast flowing, white water rapids tumbling through the Niagara Gorge and remembered their roar and the splash of water onto the observation deck. Other photos showed a storm laden sky with dark ominous clouds hiding the brilliance of the sun as the earth waited for drops of moisture. 

There is a delicate beauty of a blossom no matter where it blooms. I've snapped a photo of a lone, stunted sunflower brightening up the shoulder of a highway on a dreary, cloudy day. Another photo reminds me of the beauty a bouquet of flowers brightened a hospital room or on my dining table.  

The list continues as I scroll through photos and bring memories to mind. Yet I also find beauty in my favourite paintings or prints hanging on my walls, some made more special because I know the artist. There are pretty knick knacks, many with stories to go with them sitting on shelves throughout my home. They range from delicate, fragile china ornaments to the sparkling insides of a geode or the round smoothness of an old marble. 

There have been so many times I wish I could capture the beauty of everyday things with more than word pictures like a fantastic photo or accurate sketch. Yet that is not the gift God has given me. I must use words to capture the imagination, fill the senses, and evoke memories for the readers so they feel like they are transported to that time and place.  Everyday moments offer such a diverse subject matter for our writing and the opportunity to create wonderful word pictures. Each time I sit to write I need to remember to engage all the senses in order to offer the readers the most enjoyable, engaging experience they can have with the words on my pages. 

God created the beauty in the world around us for us to enjoy. Psalm 24:1 says "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein." My words are a gift God has given to be used for His glory and the enjoyment of the readers. I need to continue to trust Him and learn more about the craft of writing and then practice it. 

 

Carol Harrison lives and writes from Saskatoon, SK. She loves to find the beauty in everyday things around her and then try and capture them with a photo and word pictures. 
 

A Caretaker and an Ambassador by Lorilee Guenter

After a winter that seemed like it would never end, the temperatures have soared. Yards are greening up. Fruit trees are covered in a profusion of blooms. Greenhouses display flowers in every colour you can imagine. Some flowers there await the gardeners creative touch in combining them. Others fill hanging baskets and planters of all shapes and sizes.

I have been working in my yard and garden for 25 years. It continues to change and evolve. I continue to learn. The process reminds me that a lot of time, skill and care is required to create those prepared arrangements.

I have been writing for less than 25 years, except for my journals. Like my garden, my writing continues to change and evolve.  Polishing pieces into interesting poems, stories and essays takes time, skill and care.

I continue to work to learn my craft by reading, writing and attending workshops. Like Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus 35:30-35, others have been given the ability to teach. I benefit from them sharing their skill, wisdom and knowledge.

I participate, with God, in creating beauty in my yard with and oft critical eye. I need to pause and remind myself that it is not meant to be an ongoing to-do list. It is meant to be a place I can observe a small slice of God's amazing, varied, intricate creation. He causes the flowers to bloom in their time. He has invited me in as a caretaker of this particular piece of creation.

I participate in sharing a slice of God's story, His amazing, intricate, complex story. Sometimes in my writing I become focused on what isn't finished. Here again, I am learning to pause and reflect. My words teach me as I process the wonder of the world around me. Others inform me as I contemplate the words God called them to share.

When I put down my pen, and share my writing, I trust God will cause those words to bloom. He is in control of the time and the place they grow. I am invited in as an ambassador of His story of everlasting love, mercy and grace. 

Lorilee Guenter enjoys gardening, reading and more. During the summer, her and her husband often hit the trails at nearby parks. He carries a camera. She carries a sketchbook.