This is a piece I wrote this summer after an amazing week in Utah.  Oh the beauty of travel to lands unknown to me!

I visited Utah this past week, and I was not prepared for the number of overwhelming moments I would have along the way. As I looked down from a narrow switchback path on a red rock cliff amidst hoodoos and canyons, I remember thinking ” how could all this be, how could this much beauty exist and I have been unaware?” I wonder now how much beauty I miss on a daily basis. I wonder now as I sit here at a computer back home; away from red rock formations and surprising pools of mountain water surrounded by rich green vegetation. I wonder how much beauty I have already missed today in my world of existence. Must I go to an unknown place to determine that I live in beauty as well?

As I write this I am still overwhelmed with the sights that I saw. I am still awed at the way rock falls away to sculpt its own statues and spires. My breath is still hitching when I think of walking into a magical mountain oasis surrounded by sheer rock on all sides, water trickling down through leaves and over pebbles and stones. I am stunned by the fairy sand I viewed on slickrock mesas, sparkling with quartz, yet reminding me somehow of the beaches at home in some prehistoric deep way. A forest out of nowhere with a babbling creek flows through my mind, a mama duck and her babies floating on a pond created by mountain runoff. Wildflowers of purple, red, yellow, white and pink sprout up in my soul like the surprising flowers I viewed growing out of what looked to be barren desert and craggy mountainsides.

There was Something Divine in everything I saw this week. Can I maintain this reverence for the majestic sights I saw even when they are out of view for a few more days? Today I offer up thanks for the opportunity I have been given to witness another piece of this vast earth that I tread upon. Can I step lightly enough for a few more steps to honor the Creator of such beauty?

I can certainly try.