• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Photo Gallery
  • Contact
PRAIRIE PUNCTUATIONS

Look to the light

7/6/2020

0 Comments

 
     Light differs from place to place.  I think you especially notice light when you take pictures.  Makoshika Park is one of the loveliest places to take pictures, but not at noon day when the light is flat or on a day that is overcast.  There are wonderful colors and myriads of details in the formations and the wildlife and flowers, but you have to be out in the early morning or late afternoon or evening.  That is when the light from the sun seems to catch the colors at their best and sharpens the details in nature.
    Pictures of people’s faces have to be exposed to the light or you will only have a dark shadow where a face should be.  Pictures need special attention — to the world, to your subject and to the play of light on the simplest things.  The sunlight streaming in my windows at the house will create works of art out of my house plants, the dishes in the drainer, the patterns on the floor. 
    All of us in the colder climates love the winter sun on a frosty morning. The ordinary becomes a fantasy thanks to the light.  Today, in the middle of summer, the sky is a cloudless, washed-denim blue.  The shadows are on the west as the earth is moving slowly in its daily orbit.  The contrast of green trees and vibrant summer flowers, is amazing.
    In books of encouragement we are called in our darkest hours to always “look to the light”.  See the details the light reveals.  It is an intense Fourth of July this year.  The pandemic is keeping us away from the light, away from people.  Here in eastern Montana, while we social distance and wear masks, we can get outside in our yards, in the parks in our community, and in the countryside.  In the midst of our frustration and anxiety, nature provides a way of holding on to the light.
    Thinking of “light” today reminds me of the places where the light of freedom is growing dim.  The pictures from China where the people of Hong Kong struggle to be free in the face of increasing military control are frightening.  Or in Russia where Putin has controlled the elections, hardened his dictatorship and is always seeking to diminish the light of freedom elsewhere.  Or in places in our own country where the right to vote is being limited in whatever ways the people in power can find. Those in power fear the voter.  Fear lives in the shadows. Hatred cannot exist in the light. It is in the dark places where the free exchange of thoughts in the universal marketplace of ideas is prevented.  The light of freedom is a natural light burning in each human being.  It cannot be extinguished. One hundred years ago women finally won the right to vote.  As one woman said, “They didn’t give us the right to vote.  We took it.”  For the light of freedom to keep burning we must remain alert to those who would suppress it and we must speak for those who are voiceless. The freedoms we cherish are universal, but for all to live in that light our determination must be relentless.

This morning my devotions had a verse from Lamentations 3.22-23:
 “The steadfast love of the Lᴏʀᴅ never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22–23). It is a good way to begin each day, to pause in the middle of the day, and to end the day.  I have always liked the hymn based on this verse (Great is Thy faithfulness). "Morning by morning new mercies I see.  All I have needed thy hand has provided; great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me." 
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Avis R. Anderson

    Retired public school librarian, retired ELCA pastor, lover of the prairies, "daughter of the middle border", granddaughter of Scandinavian immigrants.  Always loved to read and write.  P.S.  I don't Facebook or Twitter, but I would enjoy visiting with you at aa66bg77@gmail.com

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    1950s Life
    Advent
    Age
    Aging
    All Saints 2020
    Attitude
    Baby Boomers
    Back Roads
    Black Hills
    Blessings
    Bombs Iran
    Books
    Border Wall
    Choices
    Christmas 2017
    Christmas 2017 (2)
    Christmas 2018
    Civic Pride
    Civil Discourse
    Civil War
    Climate Change
    Clothes Lines
    Comey Hearings
    Community
    Covid 19
    Dinosaur Digs
    Diplomacy
    Douglas
    Down-sizing
    Election
    Elections
    Elie Wiesel
    Environment
    Faith Life
    Fall
    Fear
    Flood On Yellowstone
    Forgiveness
    Freedom (in Christ)
    Freedom Of The Press
    Friends
    Friendship
    Ft. Peck Montana
    Ft. Union
    Funerals
    Funeral Sermons
    Genocide
    God's Love
    Grace
    Great Basin
    Green Spaces
    Handwork
    History
    Holocaust
    Holy Spirit
    Home
    Hope 2021
    House
    Hugh Glass
    Human Relations
    Immigration
    Immigration Grandparents
    Indians
    Iowa Caucus
    July 4th 2017
    June 2020
    Justice
    Lamenting
    Library Week
    Life Questions
    Listening
    Living Today
    Living Well
    Love
    Lutefisk Style
    Makoshika 2019
    Makoshika Park
    Meditation
    Memorial Day 2017
    Mother Teresa
    Native Americans
    New
    Pandemic 2020
    Parks
    Peace
    Peace 2021
    Pentecost
    Poetry
    Politics
    Politics 2017
    Prairie Home
    Prairie Journey
    Prairies
    Process
    Prodigal Son
    Public Service
    Rain
    Ranching
    Reading
    Retirement
    River Valley
    Road Trip
    Route 66
    Rural Life
    Seasons
    Self-control
    Service
    Simple Living
    Single Life
    Small Town Life
    Soldiers
    Spirituality
    Spring
    Spring Weather
    Stav Church
    Stories
    Summer 2017
    Summer Adventures
    Summer Living
    Summertime
    Taos NM
    The Mind
    Travel
    Travel Colorado
    Travel Wyoming
    Trinity
    Trump
    Trump Politics
    Truth
    Utah
    Viewpoints
    Voting
    Walking
    Wealth
    Wind
    Winter2019February
    Winter In Baker
    Wisdom
    Wisdom Words
    Women
    Words
    Work
    Workers
    World
    World Society
    World War I
    Wyoming
    Yellowstone River
    Yellowstone River Valley
    Zennie's Travels

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Photo Gallery
  • Contact