Sunset

As I plodded along snowy streets and sidewalks this afternoon, I wondered if it had been a silly idea, to try to find something each day that gave me joy to take a picture of. The neighborhood looks much as it always does – just covered now with snow. I have previously tramped around in the snow looking for things to take pictures of, and found little. In those cases, though, I was interested in creating a beautiful photograph, not just a photograph of something beautiful. Some little thing would do, I thought. Even so, with my back hurting some from shoveling, and my hands getting cold, nothing seemed especially attractive.

As I walked, though, I tried to pray for the people who live in these houses, even the ones I don’t know (which is, admitted, most of them other than the houses immediately next to and across from us). And I reflected what a good place it is to live, and how glad we are we moved here where our sons could grow up (our older son was in middle school when we came here). So what I really wanted was a photo to represent this community that I appreciate, but what was there near my house that would do that?

Coming around the corner, I saw orange-streaked skies of sunset behind the Ag center. When we moved here, before the Ag center was built, there were cows in these fields, just a block from our house (and lots of flies). I assume there are still cows back there, just not near the street anymore (I don’t miss the flies at all). But there is still a very rural feel to this stretch of road, very different from the small-city feel of downtown a few miles away. I like both, and it’s nice to be able to see wide-open fields here, and interesting stores to browse in there. My photo of this evening’s sunset doesn’t do justice to the beauty of the sunset – or of the community – but it reminds me of both, which was the idea of taking these pictures.

A few days ago I downloaded the Daily Prayer app on my phone, both as a reminder to pray at different times of day, and because it has prayers from the Book of Common Prayer (which I appreciate but don’t have a copy of except the one I also recently downloaded to my phone). Right before I went out for my walk, the phone buzzed with the notification of the Evening Prayer. The closing prayer today begins “O heavenly Father, who has filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness,” which seems to fit very well with this picture.