Rugged Beauty

The Canadian Shield - A Thing of Beauty

Rugged Beauty

I was driving the backroads near my home on the Canadian Shield and was delighting in the rugged beauty at every turn. There were marshes with vegetation that flourished in that rugged terrain that had overcome the hardship of too much water, or too much drought, too little forest and too much competition for sunlight. Each tree that stood was a symbol of perseverance, determination, and just plain toughing it out over many years.

As an artist my mind is always evaluating what I like and what I don’t like in what I see. As I was driving I concluded that I loved the edges of the rock that have been blasted away which revealed their depth and character.

If the road had not been there I would have never been able to see the beautiful veining and character of the rock; that hue of pink, that strip of white marble. I love the sharp angles, the cliffs, the majestic pines that tell a tale of standing long before my birth, or my parents, over even my grandparents. Those trees that have stood tall for generations – what tales they have to tell.

Then it occurred to me that those rocks, which I see as so beautiful, went through a tremendous upheaval from the center of the earth. Their sharp edges reveal a splitting and tearing apart which in human terms would have been devastating.

Then I heard a soft whisper that reminded me that it is from the difficult, hard, splitting and tearing that the Creator of the Universe craves something beautiful in us. The hardship reveals the inner beauty, the character. It has withstood the weather, the storms, the drought, the rain, the sun, the cold and has stood firm and flourished.

Such are the days of our lives. Without the struggle others may never be able to appreciate the beauty. What has been a hardship in my life can be something beautiful for others. This gives me courage. To endure. And to stand tall like those majestic trees that adorn that rugged beauty.