The Sublime Hidden in the Obvious

You never know what you might find when you peer carefully beyond the surface. My parents have always been masters at looking for the sublime nestled in the obvious. Dad would do so on long country drives every Sunday with his brood. We never knew exactly where we were going or what we hoped to find, but we always found something worth pausing to see. Mom would do so on her hunts through nearby forests for wild flowers or slate or pebbles she could transplant to her woodland trails she was creating in our forested back yard.

They continue this practice today, to the best they are able with the creaky joints and tiring muscles of growing older. They live in a very beautiful area of upstate NY. Every day, they go out for a modest lunch, single handedly supporting the restaurant business in their area. Then they go for a drive, taking circuitous routes home. They are always on the prowl for wildlife.
"There is something so exciting about seeing an animal in the wild that you don't feel when you see them in an enclosure," Mom told me as we drove yesterday, "Even deer. When you meet them in the wild and gaze into their eyes, there is a connection...you don't get that when they are caged."

On our drive yesterday, we saw first the glimpse of a great blue heron, almost completely hidden in the reeds of a bog, and then a flock of wild turkey grazing on the lawn of a farm house. We had crawled slowly over the old country roads, peering about us with expectant wonder. Had we been going the speed limit, or straight home on well traveled roads, we would have missed all of that delight.

Before our drive, I had worked all morning in their yard. First I tackled the garden area that was professionally put in a few months back and was littered with weeds. I pulled out all those nasty buggers, but that was child's play compared to the daunting task of removing the bushels and bushels of leaves in their heavily forested yard. The day before, I had discovered the joys of using a leaf blower on the front yard. (Yes, over half a century old and I had never used a leaf blower.)

Yesterday, I decided to tackle the back. My folks told me not to bother, just let the leaves lie and the forest would reclaim all Mom's beautiful paths, stone hedges, slate patio, and pebble "river" with the hundreds of blue smooth pebbles I had helped her collect. No. I could not let the forest have it. Not yet. But they were buried under a thick blanket of leaves, and the trees were only half done contributing to the deluge.

I knew it was perhaps a fool's errand, but one I was compelled to do. Bit by bit, I uncovered the slate patio, and then the pachysandra garden hedged by rocks Mom had carefully chosen and transplanted. Next, I began forging a path through the trees, making a neat leaf covered circle in the center and creating a cleared loop through the back yard. I uncovered a patch of spotted plants that I know my mom had transplanted, but I can't remember their name. And then out of nowhere, I blew the leaves from the blue pebble "river". I could almost hear the little stone brook babble.

In a month (or less), the paths will be covered again, but I will come back in the spring. Meanwhile, as long as I am here, I will continue to clear away and search for the unexpected flowers buried from sight. It is so often the hidden things that captivate our souls; the hard to uncover beauties lying along the path of life, the revelations of God that we have to seek diligently nestled in the obvious. All creation is shouting His name, but we have to be willing to walk with expectant hearts, pausing at times to listen, to look deeply for things we may not otherwise notice.

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indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; (Proverbs 2:3-5, 9, 20, 21 NIV)




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