Five Photos Proving Beauty is Bigger Than #2020
In the waning weeks of 2020, the Great White North came to visit. In my almost-southern hometown, the magnolias and bamboo bowed low, showing deference to the weight of a year. 2020: It’s been heavy.
Before the snow came, I sat in our local adoration chapel, a thin place in this world where the silence speaks. There, I reviewed the year—COVID-19; the George Floyd protests; the presidency that will not end. I offered a few prayers for peace and resolution, and as I did, other things came to mind. The grace of confirmation. The trout stream. The beauty of Amber’s tiny garden. The Farm. The anniversary. The exquisite food. There’s been enough grace to go around.
There is a temptation to treat 2020 as its own sort of hashtag, a meme of all things negative. This, I perceive, gives the darkness too much weight. We are not bamboo. The world is not snow. Beautiful things are bigger when given their proper place.
What good have you seen in 2020? Reflect on it. Steep yourself in it. There is more beauty than horror in this human life, if only we’ll slow down long enough to see it.
There Are Still Beautiful Things, Even in a World on Fire
Fires
We are small things, each of us,
living in a world burning at the edges.
As stars, as fireflies, as Earth’s center:
we are the source of both
illumination and conflagration.
***
Today’s poem is inspired by a spit of time I spent at a friend’s farm last night. We tended to a little work ‘round about dusk (thinking-man’s work, not farmer’s work), and when it was time to leave, the fireflies were out in droves. Those tiny marvels danced through the yard as the stars rose into the sky, tiny fires appearing everywhere. It was a recentering moment, the kind of moment that takes the sting out of life.
We’re heading into a weekend, and as we do, I hope you’ll take some time to steal away from the less gracious fires burning in today’s world. From the pandemic numbers. From the pain of the endless churn of news. Steal away and find something beautiful. Feast on it. Breathe it in. Celebrate it.
It’s Time to Wake Up.
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![“It can be beyond our comprehension to even understand why someone would be hurting. [But] we can... understand that our brother and sister is hurting, and we can lean into their pain.” ~ @davidmbailey
I am white, and many of you here a](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56ba31db356fb05ecdc0b3bc/1591452672563-6H098FCYGTRU4I3378H9/image-asset.jpeg)
Observation #8: Observing the Bones
On a trip to southern Louisiana, I saw the bones of the old oak. The erosion of the marshland, the encroaching salt water, the change in climate—all of it takes its toll on living things.
Observation #8: Bones make beautiful photos, though that’s no silver lining.
*For behind the scenes content join the inner circle. Photo taken with the Canon M-50.
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