July 2024

Recently Jan and Bill have been very busy preparing to move to a new residence. Close to feeling overwhelmed, thoughts of going to the mountains seemed like a wonderful, temporary relief.

“Wanna get away?” I mean, do you ever really want to get away from the din and mayhem of our world? – to get to a place of clear air and wider horizons? Some people daydream of such an imaginary trip. I’ve never piloted an airplane, but I have flown in 2-seater private airplanes with pilots I trusted. I can understand where they might get their dopamine hit by soaring the skies.

I’ve had thoughts of this recently – thoughts of rising above the politics, meanness and malfeasance in our world today. That can get you down. Think about the meaning of that metaphor – get you down.

Being “down” is a pervasive condition perpetuated by the media, society, entertainment, and maybe even relationships. Naturally, we don’t even realize we’re in it. As a friend used to say, “To a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.” (A Yiddish proverb.)

Just yesterday I ran across an old photo I took in 1972. The tagline is “looking at the world from Pike’s Peak.” I recalled that moment, standing at the top of the mountain, enjoying the cool, lambent breeze, and the sense that I could see to the ends of the earth. I felt a type of transmigration (in a secular sense) of moving to a place of peace, quiet, and clarity.

Now, we can’t just up and go to Pike’s Peak. How might we rise above the current troublesome effects that get us down? Surely, everyone has pleasant experiences they can recall. Gratitude rewards our endurance in difficult times. Everyone has a choice. Abraham Lincoln said, “A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.”  

The photo taken from high up on Pike’s Peak, undescriptive as it is, leaves to our imagination how we can rise above banality and look at the world with meaning and purpose. “Think higher, feel deeper.”

Viktor E. Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning wrote: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 

--by Jan

This photo was taken in Terrebonne, Oregon, just down the street from my family’s house during my high-school years. It shows only four of the eight Cascade Mountain peaks visible from our front yard.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills,” says the psalmist (Ps. 121). Considering this photo, is it any wonder that my spirits still lift every time mountains are in view?

Whether or not you react to mountains as I do, we all need to regularly lift our eyes from the everyday details of life to take a broader view. So often, our days our consumed by our mundane tasks, our “to-do” lists, the messages that need responses, our aches and pains and worries.

I need, each day, to pause, to breathe, to sit in silence, to contemplate beauty. I repeatedly need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and consider the broader view.

Friends, let us remember, each day, to give thanks for the beauty of God’s creation. Each day, let us express our gratitude for all those who support and encourage us. Each day, let us give thanks for the air we breathe, the food we partake.

I so easily become trapped within the piles of paper on my desk and the messages waiting on my screen. Much of that is important, of course, even necessary. But I still need to step back periodically, lift my eyes, and take in the broader view.

Kathleen Norris shares what she calls “a gem of spiritual wisdom” written by a little girl: “Silence reminds me to take my soul with me wherever I go.”* How true!

Lifting our eyes, to broaden our horizons, can do the same.

--by Bill

*Norris, Amazing Grace, p. 17.