In the Eye of the Beholder

This is a photo I captured with my big girl camera four years ago from the back deck of our home in Kamloops. It came up in my social media memories this morning, and it’s one of my favourites. I haven’t taken the opportunity to get out with my Canon since we moved to Moose Jaw in December, but now that it’s warming up, Gerry and I are looking forward to getting out and taking photos again.

It’s a different kind of beautiful here, one that calms and grounds me. In the afternoon when I drive to Caronport to pick Makiya up from school, I find myself smiling. Sometimes I have to remind myself to pay more attention to the speed I’m traveling at—not because I’m going too fast, but because I’m prone to be distracted by the prairie causing me to drive under the speed limit. My daughter had a good laugh when I confessed this to her. “There’s nothing to look at!” she said. But, oh, how wrong she was.

There are fields and trees and red barns and old houses and things my imagination conjures. There’s peace, if peace can be seen with the naked eye—and I believe it can—here, for me. There’s grace, wonder, promise, and quiet, steady beauty. History. Possibility. The lives of those who came before me stir in my heart. There are all these things and so much more that it’s difficult to put into words.

This is a photo I took last week with my phone through the dirty windshield of my car when I was awed by the setting sun. It’s terrible! I wish I had had my Canon with me and, failing that, I wish I had the presence of mind to get out of the car and not shoot through the window. Still, it’s beautiful in its own dirty-windshield kind of way.

Here’s another recent one taken with my phone at the end of the street we live on when Gerry and I were out for a walk. The path was muddy, and we dodged puddles, ice, and snow the whole way; it wasn’t all that pleasant, save for the prairie view.

We can find beauty anywhere if remain open and present and look for it. Whether anyone else shares your vision of what’s noteworthy is irrelevant. Our creator made us unique and, as such, we see beauty in different forms at different times and in different places. And that, in my eyes, is simply wonderful.