Getting Away

We all need to get away

To find a bit of breathing room

New perspectives

Time to reconnect with family

A break from the day to day

Mount Katahdin from Lake Millinocket, 1878, Frederick Edwin Church, oil on cardboard

Only this year I am struggling with a tailbone injury/issue that isn’t allowing me to sit in the car for longer than a short trip across town. So there will be no long journeys or little day trips for us this summer.

In the meantime I am finding the pool at the college near by to be a wonderful new pass time and I am resolved to begin a new yoga routine. My stack of books on the bedside table has found new growth and interests and the sun shines just as brightly here in my neighborhood as it spotlights the flowers on my morning walks.

This week I was excited to delve into the paintings of Frederic Edwin Church. I had only noticed his work in passing and suddenly I found them beautifully inspiring and well worth some quality time. What an amazing life and output. I found it interesting to read of how he would travel to places as far reaching as the Arctic and South America, make numerous sketches and notes of the area, then work on the paintings at home during the winter months. He also liked to put his paintings on display with a window frame and curtains, sometimes even indigenous plants surrounding the scene. In this way the viewer could imagine they were sitting and looking out of the window in some far off land.

Generally he will paint a tiny person or house into his paintings. In this beautiful lake scene you can see someone rowing a canoe in the upper right side of the lake. Seeing this, I am reminded of how I feel whenever visiting a grand gothic cathedral. Looking up at the vaulted ceilings, I always feel the enormous and grand nature of God. I think that is what Frederic Church had in mind with his work.

I hope you have a great week and thanks for reading:)

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…

those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

They will run and not grow weary,

They will walk and not grow faint. ~ Isaiah 40: 28-31