Beauty Surrounds Us

Has this year been crazy or what???   Last year at the beginning of March, I never could have imagined where our country would be today.  

Quite honestly, I've refrained from mentioning much about the events that have that transpired this past year because it is talked about, heard, and thought about by people so constantly that I figured it might be nice to be able to go somewhere (perhaps Virginia's blog!) where one wouldn't have to be bombarded with more of the same.  

So that's why I don't mention it.  But like everyone, we've been affected by it.  Mostly the church and us.  People who are christians and whom I've known for years as faithful followers of Christ have become bitter and angry at a pastor/leader in their church who either continued having church, or shut down a church.  Who either followed every mandate known to man, or didn't...who followed partial guidelines presented, or who followed all...

My husband, like all pastors in this country, never could have foreseen the impact of a virus with a 98% recovery rate upon God's church and His people.  

Some people will never go back to church because of a virus...  

And the hurts that pastors have had to carry this year with having people mad at them NO MATTER WHAT they ultimately had to decide will be enough to cause many to quit.  Many pastors I know already have quit.  

Dan's personality is one that is high-energy, and constantly moving.  I'm thankful for that, since this past year could have hurt so deeply that he would have quit, if not for the fact that he continued to focus on the future.  A man who loves to sit and think and not be active much would have been much more deeply hurt perhaps.  

Dan looks for things to do with his hands when life gets discouraging.  He rakes gravel, he builds, he fixes vehicles, he trims bushes...and for that I'm very grateful.  

Despite the craziness of this year, have you taken time to notice things like that?  

I have.  

Despite the discouragements and frustrations of this year, have you taken the time to look at the beauty that surrounds you?  We each have something beautiful around us: even if it's something as simple as a potted plant on your kitchen windowsill.  Maybe even a freshly cleaned mirror!  Look for the beauty!

We did this the other day when we took a walk down the road to our favorite local waterfall.  I've posted photos of this place before, but I love it so much, that here it is again.  

Despite the weather being 50-degrees, the area by the water still had about a foot of snow, since the forest is dense and the sun hardly can peek through the trees.

A short video of the falls.  I could listen to that all day.

We even managed to get a family photo!  

So...if you've read this far, go find something beautiful to focus on today!  I just ate a brownie, and while it didn't look beautiful, it tasted very beautiful, so it could be something as simple as that! 

There's too many discouraging things we COULD focus on that would draw our attention away from the giver of beauty- GOD.  Don't focus on those things...focus on the beauty: and ultimately, the Giver of that beauty.  

 

The best day of my life...thus far

I know, I haven't posted on my blog in forever.  I say that every time I re-visit my blog after a long absence.  However, this time, I feel like my long absence is warranted.  My life has been too exciting to even think of sitting down at a computer to chronicle my life experiences. 

 

It is time to chronicle now though.  On October 30th 2015, the school where I work celebrated a special day.  We had a grandparents day celebration with a program and carnival booths and everything.  I spent my morning playing the piano for the program and then tying those long, skinny balloons so that my boyfriend and a school student could form them into shapes for the children.  After two hours of tying off balloons, school was dismissed early at 12:30pm.  With raw fingers, me and my boyfriend Dan joyfully drove off to Cunningham Falls State Park in Emmitsburg MD.  We had been planning to go and see the remaining leaves while they were on the trees still. 

 

When we arrived at the park, I insisted on hiking to see an abandoned whiskey still back in the woods.  It was a nice little hike. Since we wanted to see the falls, I was expecting that next we would hike to a spot by the waterfalls, but Dan didn't express any particular interest in the falls.  He wanted to go on this certain hike called the Vista Point.  I wanted to argue and tell him that the falls were what we came to see, but I decided to go along with what he wanted, since he had done what I wanted when we went to see the historic still. 

 

We hiked up a hill, and I took this picture of the beautiful leaves. 

 

 

 

We kept finding beautiful leaves, and would take pictures of them.  We even kept five or six of them.

 

We hiked up a sort of mountain and came upon this vista point with a beautiful view of the valley.  Dan wanted to go out to the edge to take a picture, but there was another couple sitting on a rock, eating a snack. 

 

Normally, I am the one who never wants to take pictures when other people are around. 

But today I said,

 "Who cares?  They won't mind if we take a few pictures.  They might even take a picture of us!"

Dan reluctantly followed and took a few pictures.

 

We sat on this wooden bench and looked over the valley.  The other couple sat close by as well, still eating.  After a few minutes, they got up and left. 

 

Dan suggested that he take a picture of me with the background.  I posed for his picture.  Then after this picture was taken, I turned around and looked at the valley, trying to see if I could find route 15.  I was thinking about the times I would drive to markets on route 15 when all of a sudden, Dan came up behind me.  I turned and smiled just as he got down on one knee. 

 

 

Of course, the rest is history.  Dan asked me to marry him, and I said yes after being so excited I could hardly talk.  Here I am with the gorgeous little box he put the ring in. 

 

We posed for a few after-pictures with his self-timer camera. 

So now you know about the best day of my life!

 

The love of my life asked me to marry him and I happily said yes. 

 

Prepare yourselves for coming posts about wedding plans and lots of pictures of me and Dan. 

I'm going to be a Mrs!!!!!!!!

Desert Beauty

I have realized something about beauty.  It is versatile and diverse.  It is also subjective.  When I first moved to the desert, I expected to be surrounded by nothing, to live in sand and certainly never expected to be taking pictures almost every day of the beauty in the desert. 

 

The thing about scenery, is that changing your outlook in just one small aspect changes how you see the whole scene.  For instance, I have come to realize that cities can be beautiful!  Sky scrapers, cranes, harbors, busy streets, they can be beautiful. 

I am partial to farmland and mountains...and when I moved to the desert, I had the preconceived notion that I was definitely not going to enjoy the desert.  

Check out just a few of the many pictures I have taken lately in the desert however.  My opinion has changed. 

 

 

 

If those aren't beauty, than I do not know what is!

Beauty is all around us and the beauty of nature just shows me how powerful God is- that He made something so vast and glorious.  It also shows me how loving God is- that He made something that He wants us to enjoy.

"Nature always wears the color of the spirit."- Ralph Waldo Emerson