Drinking
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.”
- John Muir
We haven’t felt settled. There are many obvious things we could point to over the last six months: moving to a new area of town, getting settled and reestablished, a very disruptive trip to South Africa, welcoming a third grandchild, raising three teenagers, the normal business dissonance to accompany the beginning of a new year, etc.
But when I asked my wife to capture what she was feeling, she said, “My soul is not at rest.” So poignantly and perfectly said. Because all that change ultimately lands at our souls just not feeling at rest. There are all the usual answers to feeling that way that we could offer: prayer, quiet, reading God’s truth, and sleep to name just a few. And those are all really important.
But the third chapter of Eldredge’s latest book, Get Your Life Back, reminds us of something way more primal that we often overlook. We are were created to drink in beauty as an essential part of our being. And it isn’t the thing that a trip to the islands can cure once a year (though that is a pretty amazing away to take some ground). We need a regular diet of taking in beauty.
Now some of that has to do with just acknowledging some of the beauty that is all around us (a child’s face, a garden, a kind gesture), but the kind that old Muir is talking about has to do with immersion and getting out “there”. He talks about the wildness of nature and how evocative the creation is of the creator. It connects us in a way that nothing else can.
It is one of the things that make our souls well.
I asked my wife to tell me what makes her soul feel at rest…when she experiences what Muir is describing. She said she always felt it on our sunset Jeep cruises we used to do a couple of times a week in the Hill Country before we moved back into town. Surrounded by hills, Jeep top down, wind in her hair, and the sunset in front of us.
Since she told me that, I have made it a point to chase the sunrise or sunset to start or end every day or two. Regardless of whatever is going on, we are slipping out to take in some beauty. The creation connects us to the creator and to one another. We are still and quiet, even as we are in motion. It is an act of worship for us that makes it well with our souls.
I recently booked our anniversary trip to Big Bend. The season is screaming at us to not getaway and we had to settle on only 4 days, but we are headed to the mountains to do some drinking.
I am guessing you should probably do the same.
Consider
Are you aware of your need to experience beauty?
When is the last time taking in a part of creation made you feel really connected to the creator?
Is it well with your soul?
How much is costing those you love and lead in your family and company to not have things well with your soul?