Leaf 3 – Refreshed Appreciation of My Surroundings

Part 1:

Before moving to California last year, I came out for a weekend in April. The mountains still had snow on their peaks but beneath them the slopes were full of brilliantly green grass, yellow and white wildflowers, purple tree blossoms, and rock outcroppings that added their own variety of colors to the pallet. It was beautiful & exciting! I had been down the same road in years past when the heat of summer had melted those colors into shades of brown, so I made a conscious effort to imprint the colorful landscape in my mind (and in my camera!) & carry it with me through the summer.

When I moved here in May, things were already starting to fade, and I was glad I had visited in April. As the summer went on I continued to admire and photograph the beauty I discovered as I explored the area, and was happy to find that even as the grasses turned brown and wildflowers withered, the rocks never got boring (have you ever really stopped to look at metamorphic rock?). Then autumn came with its colors and haphazardly scattered leaves on the ground. Finally it started to get cold, and I started to spend more time indoors, and I started to get a mild case of the “stuck-inside blahs.”

Luckily, this was also right around the time I was heading back to Arizona! Amazing what some time away does… having lived in southern AZ for 6 years & northern AZ for 2 years, going “home” was both comfortably familiar and refreshingly new. Pusch Ridge, Mt. Lemmon, Cochise Stronghold, Humphrey’s Peak, the Grand Canyon… all are places I used to see (& photograph, of course) on a very regular basis, but upon returning I found myself admiring them anew.

And when I came back to California a week and a half ago, winter had some surprises for me…

First it was fog: I drove from LA over the Grapevine into the Central Valley on a Sabbath afternoon, and was instantly transplanted from sunny blue skies to a cold dreary world completely socked in under a thick heavy layer of dark fog (it’s hard to imagine this sudden change unless you’ve experienced it, it’s crazy!). Honestly, it was slightly depressing. The next day was still foggy in the Valley, but as I drove up into the foothills I was stricken with the awesomeness of the transition from being under the fog to in it & then above it. The other cool thing was that despite having driven this road countless times before, I now felt like I was somewhere in Europe (those of you who have actually traveled around Europe are welcome to tell me how right/wrong this impression is).

Then it was clear skies: After a week of rainy days I was fully expecting my drive to services the next Sabbath to be much like the one the week before. But it wasn’t. At all. Instead, the air was super-clear & I could see blue sky! If you haven’t been to the Valley, this might be hard to appreciate, but usually there’s so much stuff in the air that on a “normal” day you can only see the Sierra Nevada Mountains distantly through a haze. On this day, however, they were in sharp relief, and what’s better, with snowy-white tops! The one disappointment was that I didn’t have a safe opportunity to pull over & photograph the scene of cows grazing in a green field with the mountains behind & no industrial clutter. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance again…

Finally, it was snow: Wanting to be sure that I took the time to have fun outside so I don’t wear myself out on office-work, my boss decided we were going to take advantage of the break between the storms & check out the snow in Kings Canyon. I had never gone snowshoeing before, so that alone was an entertaining new experience, but a good one. Once I got used to walking with the snowshoes, I turned my attention to the scenery. The road that goes down into the canyon is closed so that they don’t have to plow it, which meant we had an easy “trail” for a short trip (2 hrs). Again, I’ve driven this road countless times, but it’s different when you’re walking & everything’s covered in snow. Pretty soon after we started it began snowing on us, so keeping the camera lens spot-free was a challenge at times, but I still enjoyed playing with it. (If you’re a Facebook friend, you can see two videos on my page.)

Alright, so I didn’t go writing all this just to make you wish you were here (although, if that’s been accomplished, I’m always up for visitors!). The point is that between the changing seasons and my travels I have had opportunities to look at things around me from a fresh perspective. I think this has helped me develop a little more contentment with where I am (I always seem to want to be off somewhere having adventures, but there’s so much opportunity for adventure in my own “backyard”!). It has also reminded me to maintain a continual thankfulness for God’s blessings (including appreciation of His creation). Sometimes when we’re constantly exposed to something, we get so used to it that we forget how we first responded. This can happen with things we see, knowledge we posses, people in our lives… I want to make sure I stop to notice & soak it in.

Part 2:

My sister & brother-in-law had the opportunity to go to Kenya in December on a United Youth Corps trip. When they returned, they shared with us their photos & stories. It brought back some memories of my trip to Ghana several years ago (also with Youth Corps), stirring up thoughts of how that affected my perspective on various issues. We talked about a variety of things, and I left home glad for the time we had together after their trip. When I got back to work here, I was greeted with a humorous inconvenience: there is something wrong with the toilet. Before each flush, the tank has to be refilled. As long as I fill it enough, it flushes fine. Fixing it will be a rather involved project, so while it will eventually get done, in the meantime I’m just putting up with filling the tank every time I need to flush. This inconvenience reminded me of some of the restroom options while I was in Ghana, and you know what? If I had to fill that tank every time for the whole next year, I would quite honestly be ok with that, because at least it still flushes and is clean and in a bathroom with privacy (please don’t think that all of Ghana is lacking such things; I used many fully-functional nice restrooms there, it’s just that I also used restrooms where the odor of clogged toilets made me physically sick and in one case the “restroom” was a roofless concrete room with a trough on one side). Of course, this got me thinking about other things that I have or use and the blessings they are. In a society & generation that values “new” & “impressive” I’ve at times struggled not to look down on something simply because it seemed “old,” and as a perfectionist, tiny flaws can really bug me sometimes. But who am I to be critical of the blessings God has allowed in my life?

So there it is. Refreshed Appreciation of My Surroundings; both my geographic surroundings & the stuff that surrounds me.

I hope this helps to stimulate thought about appreciation, and recognition of the day-to-day things around you that bring a smile to your face.

What do you appreciate?

What brings a smile to your face?

Stop & soak it in.

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,

if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you,

if the simple things in nature have a message you understand,

Rejoice, for your soul is alive.”

- Eleanora Duse -

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you,

and the storms their energy,

while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

- John Muir -