Reflective Perspective

I saw the most awesome sight.  It needed to be recorded. 

My husband stopped the vehicle, handed me his camera and I stepped out to breathe in the crisp sweet air.

The other vehicle stopped and we radioed our intentions to them.  Others saw some of what I saw, but they didn’t get it.  I could tell by where they stood they didn’t see it: 

Perspective joining the sapphire of an altitude sky and distant purple peaks sprinkled with early fall snows.  A little row of protected color contrasting the deep evergreen on the hillsides.

The field of waving grass that had somehow escaped the hay mowers and the cattle’s maw.

Willows and Cottonwoods by a distant creekbed, waiting for the fall to convince them that they too should shed their silvery foliage for winter’s rest.

I drank it in with a childlike giggle.  The Spirit inside was rising with joy over the unified creation.  The camera snapped; my lungs were full, my mind was full, my heart was full.  I drank it in.

I stood at peace and mentally captured my surroundings again.  Anticipating more to come, I rushed back to the van and handed my husband his camera. 

But another of our number had seen his own vision and was on a quest for his own fulfillment.  And he wandered out of our vision away from our fulfillment.  45 minutes later after the other vehicle gave up and drove on, after others had given way to their frustrations in a vocal upheaval at having to wait, after realizing my own loss at what I didn’t know or see, after the other group had radioed that they were on their way back from what we could only imagine, our friend returned.  His excitement at the shot he felt he had gotten was not dampened by our disgruntled disappointment.  He cared not that the Token Old Ladies were tired of waiting.  “Just wait ‘til you see what I got!” he continued to exclaim.

I pasted on a wan smile though I’m sure my eyes were full of fire.  Mentally, I took it out on the older women for being so gripey, and withdrew from interaction for a time.

Only after several weeks passed did I realize what I gave up for that right to a bad mood.



Reflective Perspective



It started out just you and me

An envelope of deity

The awesome scene surrounding me,

Unspoken praise.



But other voices entered in;

Motion snatched my conscious when

My peaceful, sweet gave way to then:

Intruding haze.



And soon the present noise drowned out

The beauty it was all about

And left behind frustration’s doubt,

A downward gaze.



The incident left bitter taste

And I sat selfish thought incased

But did not know what I debased

For many days.



A photograph within my hand

A lovely site sprang up again

And bid me come, and gaze, and stand,

My vision raise.



How was it I was blinded to

The beauty I could share with you

And took instead a soiled spew

A hateful maze.



So come and change my subvert mind

Beauty before, dark paths behind

Accompanied by a kinder kind

Renewed by grace.