Beauty Surrounds Us

Last week I was on the road for four days. I covered a pretty fair sized area from Nashua to Roundup to Lewistown to Billings to Zortman and back home.

Every mile I was treated to sights that could all be made into postcards. As the miles slipped away so many thoughts went through my mind. Thoughts of homesteaders and cowboys, ranchers, farmers and prospectors.

Some of the hills looked as though they were covered in green velvet. And I saw an endless variety of shades of green. The lush bright green of pasture, the deep dark green of pine trees, the light green of sage, the light and dark green of the leaves and stems of wildflowers.

Overhead the sky was the clearest of blue often peppered with popcorn clouds. Snow could be seen on the mountain tops. Enormous rocks could be seen at the beginning of tree lines. Beneath them you could see rocks of all sizes that had been pushed up from the earth or those loosened by wind and water and rolled downhill to their final resting place.

Bright spots of color - purple, lavendar, yellow, white, and red were scattered everywhere, wildflowers in bloom. In places you could even catch scent of their perfume as the wind rushed into the vehicle.

Huge clouds provided spots of shade for the grazing cattle, antelopes with their babies, deer leisurely working their way across the land. Birds flew up out of the ditches or off fence posts, soaring into the sky and gracefully floating along on the wind. Pheasants and sage hens, gophers and rabbits scurried across the road.

There in the sunshine and new grass was a mother fox with her babies. The kits were frolicking in the sun, wrestling with and chasing each other while their mother kept a sharp eye out for predators.

My friend and I stopped by the roadside several times to collect new growths of sage. Their sweetness filled the pickup.

On a side trip, we came across an old log house that was slowly returning to the earth. Stopping to take a picture I heard the birds singing and spotted two horses peacefully grazing near it.

Farther along a handful of horses were enjoying the beautiful day. One horse was rolling back and forth, its hooves dancing in the air.

We lead such busy lives. There’s work, appointments to be kept, sports games to attend. And we experience stress -- constantly. We are besieged with reports of violence, political contests, disasters such as floods and fires. We often find ourselves wondering what is happening in our world and why.

Perhaps what we all need is to set everything aside and get into our cars or pickups and just take off driving with no particular destination in mind. And as we’re driving, clear our minds of our day to day struggle and open our eyes, ears and hearts to the magnificent beauty that surrounds us every day - a beauty we so often fail to notice in our hurry to get from here to there and back again.

A beauty that is out there, waiting for us to experience it. A beauty that, given a chance, can bring us calm and peace and an appreciation of all our blessings.