I’ve continued my exploration of the timeless maxim on the temple of Delphi—Know Thyself, and yesterday, I turned back to the first three “Know Thyself” lists I asked you to create. (Those lists: your values, your skills, and the things that bring you joy.) But knowing yourself, formulating these lists—what’s the point?

Consider Lore and Nate. She’s a writer by trade (visit her site and follow her work). He’s a data architect with a penchant for poetry. They live in the sprawling concrete suburbs of Bigboxelvania, the sort of place that’s dominated by bumper-to-bumper rush hours and glass-walled buildings reflecting the heat of a scorching southwestern sun. It’s the kind of town that doesn’t brake for anything, including beauty because who has time for beauty in this endless race of the intoxicated rats.

Years ago, a friend shared a secret with Lore: To beat back the darkness of this town, you have to distill what you value and pursue it. And so, Lore set out to distill and distill and distill, and as she did, this is what she found.

Lore’s values: creativity; being a catalyst for change; beholding beauty.

Lore’s skills: writing; capturing the essence of things; sharing beauty.

What brings Lore Joy: nature; faith; and art.

Lore knows herself well, and as no small aside, so does her husband. In fact, their lists are so similar that they’ve set out to pursue these things together. So, should it be any surprise that when I spoke with Lore yesterday, she and Nate were Santa Fe, visiting art galleries, spiritual sites, and the surrounding rock formations in the high desert? Should it be any surprise that she bird-dogged beauty across the country, that she tracked it down to an art gallery, that she shared it?

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I walked into here and gasped and then cried. Gustave Baumann is my favorite artist, a woodblock printmaker who did some of his most prolific work in New Mexico. I’ve collected clippings and postcards and calendars from him year after year, but to stand in a giant room with floor to ceiling originals of his work on all four walls was a moment I’ll never forget. Nate let me stay as long as I wanted, which was probably far longer than the gallery owner expected. #gustavebaumann

A post shared by Lore Ferguson Wilbert (@lorewilbert) on Nov 5, 2019 at 1:01pm PST

When I spoke to Lore and Nate yesterday, they were wide awake, alive in their pursuit of the things they value and that bring them joy. Sure, they won’t get to stay in Santa Fe forever, but for the moment, they were aware of the goodness of God in the land of the living. They were unstuck from the world’s endless dark churn. They were free.

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