The Way I See It: Growth

It was The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring with live music. Live music! The film played through a projector on a huge screen, and right below it, the orchestra and choir played through the entire film. Pure beauty.

I've been thinking a lot about how beauty makes us grow. Seeing beauty is definitely a growing experience, but I struggle with how to explain it. It's a growing deeper into the world and ourselves, a type of becoming. The growth that beauty brings is unquantifiable. It pushes and pierces and prods us, until we reach a state of surprise and wonder. We become more human after encounters with beauty, after beauty makes us grow.

Just the day before the concert, I watched Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life with some friends. It is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen (and actually deserves an entire post for itself). At the end of the film, there was a wordless wonder that we all felt and a growing of our friendship that we shared this piece of beauty together. I felt the same way after the Lord of the Rings concert. Beauty helps us grow together, as friends and as humans.

Growing in beauty is something that seems just out of reach for our words.

(The Way I See It is hosted by Molly at Close at Home.)

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The Way I See It: Peace

Peace feels familiar in the newness of the morning. I love watching the sun-patterns in my house - seeing the blue light fade and the gold light come.










This is the time of quiet. I can hear every step I take and fill the silence with words, not my own, but belonging to the prayers of old. Peace.

This afternoon, peace came when he fell asleep in my arms. Babysitting for six hours has its ups and downs, but this welcome moment made it all worth it.

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And sometimes, peace comes when I least expect it. I've been sick lately, even more than usual. Insomnia makes for some very, very long nights. In the middle of those nights, when I've exhausted myself with crying, I'll grab a blanket and try to catch a glimpse of the stars outside. City lights don't allow for too many, but the few I see, they're enough. Enough to remind me of plans bigger and greater than myself, of His faithfulness and His love.

There, also, I find peace.

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(The Way I See It is hosted by Molly at Close at Home. Next week's theme is growth.)

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The Way I See It: Evening

I always feel slightly guilty if I'm not outside during this time they call 'golden light'. I love the way the calm light settles over everything, turning yellows to golds and greens into emeralds. I would spend hours with this light. It only lasts for so long, though.

To the hedge on the side

And the light in your eyes

To the quiet long walks

Of fast-moving time

let evening come.

"Let it come, as it will, and don’t

be afraid. God does not leave us

comfortless, so let evening come."

(First verse is mine, then a direct quote from Jane Kenyon's Let Evening Come.)

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The Way I See It is hosted by Molly at Close to Home. This week's upcoming theme is peace.

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