Morning Thanks--Beauty

From an Iowan, there's no denying that it's not good ground. Sunday, when I took Dad back to the Home, he talked like he often does. We're passing through Alton, the pond along the road and the woods, and he says, "Too many trees." What he means is that it wouldn't be smart to farm the land.

We're up top of the hill, up at St. Mary's Church, a gorgeous old small-town cathedral, and he tells me that it's too hilly right here by the cemetery, that this wouldn't be good ground either. 

He's not priggish about it. He's not putting anyone or anything down. It's where his mind is stuck these days, his final days. We just get him out, and he's happy. Aside from a tour in Europe during the war, he farmed every day of his working life. In the Home, he's dying; but he gets out between fields of corn and soybeans, and, honestly, he can breath. He starts seeing again, making old-time judgments. They come to him quickly, joyfully even.

I thought of him often last week, passing through Utah and New Mexico, thought of him as if he were beside me looking at all this desert, because I know what he would have said. He would have talked about the land, would have to admit that it wouldn't be much good for corn and soy beans.

I know this desert environment has an lively ecology of its own, its own catalog of uses; but when I'm in it, mile after mile after mile, I hear his measurements. And I can't help asking myself why--why so very much land wish so very little use? 

It wasn't a question that plagued me all day because the answer came after an hour or so in the middle of all of that red rock beauty. God almighty keeps some places open for just plain awe. I don't think Dad could get a crop off most of the land I traveled, but oh, my word, can a man or woman harvest a blessing just to see His world.

They're clothed, as you can see. But this couple reminds me of Adam and Eve in the garden. Look at them--just bursting with awe. That's me last week in the middle of world created for beauty's sake.

All day I spent slack-jawed in awe that's good for the soul. 

This morning's thanks is for the sheer beauty all around.