I am large, I contain
multitudes.
Walt
Whitman, “Song of Myself”
Beauty and grace are
performed whether or not we will or sense them.
The least we can do is try to be there.
Annie
Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
In the
summer of 2014 I was in New York City twice.
The first time was with our church youth group for a seminar on poverty
and hunger sponsored by the United Methodist Women. One of the pastors who accompanied our group
from Minnesota had gone to seminary in New York so knew the city well. Later that summer, my wife, Julie, our
daughter Sarah, and I returned to the city as visitors.
I was quite
taken by the city. I was exhilarated by
the activity, the people, the energy.
Waiting in lines we could hear people from all over the world who were
also there to see the Empire State Building or the Rockefeller Center. I loved walking over the Brooklyn Bridge with
my family.
This past
summer, our family traveled west on vacation.
Being in Yellowstone National Park, seeing the Rocky Mountains, standing
on the quiet prairie in Theodore Roosevelt, were all awe-inspiring. When traveling through the plains, I cannot
help but think of the people who roamed there so freely until clashes with the
European-Americans of the expanding United States led to their being confined
to reservations. It is almost as if
there are “voices” in the silent winds of the prairies.
I know
people for whom New York City would be their greatest nightmare. They like wide open spaces, or the quiet of
the forest, or the pace of small towns.
I know others who would find the quiet of the prairies maddening. I feel wonderfully fortunate that I find
beauty and grace in such diverse places.
Beauty and grace can be found in the multiple faces on the streets of
New York, in the wonderfully diverse voices heard, in the human energy
generated in the city. Beauty and grace
can be found in majestic mountain views, in the silent whispers of the
prairies.
The least I
can do is try to be there, wherever the “there” is. When I am so present, I contain multitudes,
and am grateful for that wonderful flow of beauty and grace.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
