I believe in hidden beauty, and in taking the time to perceive it. I believe if we look, we will find…even as the highway passes by in a blur. We all find ourselves there sometimes—life passing by, “too quickly” or “too slowly”.

It’s painful. But, it’s not unredeemable.

What a wealth of story lays in the creation surrounding us everyday of our lives, story of a breaking so that something true can be let loose. I hear it in the river’s crashing through, cutting open a land for a translucent wonder to grace our view. I bear it in my back as I bring plow to ground to see green break through, one new day. I watch it in my people’s hearts, confused or hardened even by life’s disappointments, I watch seeds of truth breaking out into fruit, into joy.

And what we won’t have — the breaking that we reject — like water this truth will seek the lowest place and have its way, no matter how we try to hold it back. Truth is a wild stallion.

I saw some dogs trotting through a neighborhood the other day, and in one instant, it brought to mind all the pups I saw on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. In one instant I had the scent of the dusty canyon in my nostrils and felt the heat on my skin, everything presently around me felt more red, that is the desert as best as I can remember it.

It made me recognize again the power of memory and more than that—the potential of offering our memories to one another.

And the highway passes by in a blur.

I think sometimes life is so beautiful that we don’t know what to do with ourselves. We don’t know how to understand it, sometimes we miss-understand it and even feel lonely. I do. I have mistaken and will mistake loneliness for the tight, pressing, space of alone-ness. I’m still learning — we need alone-ness, even in our togetherness.

We need to know there is such a thing as hidden beauty, of being hidden in beauty.

This truth mirrors another truth, it’s in the way we can close our eyes in order to see —that which we may not be able to see— until we do close our eyes! A thousand times I’ll practice this and every hundred times (at least) I’ll want it to be untrue.

All the while, for time out of mind, God’s word just keeps finding its way into those low places, broken hearts and hungry souls, and seeds sprout and do the work they’ve long been designed and destined to do—break. open.

To break open —like a woman opens to give birth to life— it’s gonna happen, one way or another, one day further down the highway or another, or sooner, maybe even today. But, there really are easier ways than others, even gentle ways. Gratitude is a gentle way.

“The soul-trait of gratitude holds the key to opening the heart.” – Alan Morinis, Everyday Holiness

Leaning back and ceasing from the everyday, into the creation of the seventh day, the place of peace that passes understanding, is another gentle way of opening, releasing, relaxing…

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” -Romans 1:20(a)

For those of us who are unsure of what we have to offer this world, I see a bud curled within itself, aching to unfurl, drawing from roots nourished deep. We are, with all of creation, eagerly, bound up, longing to be revealed.⁠1 

As a woman with child, and as a child within a womb, we are growing full and complete within. The apostle Paul spoke of watching and waiting for Messiah to form within his students, He said, Messiah in you, was the hope of glory!⁠2 What was this reality he spoke of and how do we live into it?

Who do these things even apply to? I am eager to say that it is for every single one of us. We each have a place here. You. have. a. place. here. Your life, your memories, your today—matters something fiercer than I know how to express with words. Whether you feel life is passing by in a blur or as anything at all…

I know more than ever that there are pictures in my heart of an unfurling, and it is your bloomingyou reading this right now—that is of substance and meaningfulness more vast than all the places I’ve ever seen. You are more vast than the rolling countryside of Kentucky’s pastures, more deep than the emerald green of Missouri’s Ozark mountains, more prepared to flourish than the forested and verdant valleys of Washington’s foothills.

I want to say that you are a color yet unseen in wholeness and that I know there is more to your story.

What a wealth of story lays in the creation surrounding us everyday of our lives, story of a breaking so that something true can be let loose. I hear it in your company with me here. I desire and pray for your breaking to mean growing and I also have a deep desire for it to be gentle.

So, when I was asked recently to write an article on this subject, for my friends at His-Israel, something more like a small book came gushing out of me. I scaled it down for the article, and then my husband, Jay, and my children helped me put the rest in a booklet, as a gift for you all, my friends and family. <—click that link for a free download. If you are already a subscriber here, check your inboxes, it’s ready for you there!

The booklet is called, Grow Gently, A Companion as You Learn to Express Your Soul, and I’d love to send it to you. I’m giving it away for free as a downloadable ebook to all of my subscribers, but it will also be available to purchase as a small printed booklet soon (if you are like me and like to hold words in your hands). I would be so honored if you would take time for this. I believe in hidden beauty! What is hidden in you?

“Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows.” -Rainer Maria Rilke

Love,

Raynna

Hello, I’m a woman healing in my slice of wilds, exceedingly glad to send this out to you in your own. I’m glad you’re here, and I’d love to send you a download of my new booklet.

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1Grow Gently, A Companion as You Learn to Express Your Soul

2 Colossians 1:26-29