Not that I can whole-heartedly recommend the body of work by the 70s-80s band Supertramp, but there was one song that held my father-in-law’s whistle for a recent ski trip: “Take the Long Way Home”.  Unfortunately, the song itself seems to be about staying away from home and the nagging wife therein, but the sentiment felt by the main riff (the only lines we sang while heading down the mountain on skis) was “soak this in, appreciate the beauty around you”.  God has surrounded you with his love, his affection, his mountains, so please observe.
 
To take it a step further, we took the long way home from the ski trip: fog and subsequent delays in Chicago gave us a 2-night layover on our flight back.  Luckily we were able to visit my brother-in-law and his wife who live there.  It was my first time there, and we had the opportunity to eat great food, see the amazing architecture, and ponder the strange green river.  While walking through the Art Institute of Chicago – my in-laws are great whirlwind tour guides – we sat under a master of taking the long way home.
 
William Eggleston astutely portrays the world as he experiences it, taking in the beauty of his surroundings, even though, at times, they are extremely mundane.  He can pull the integrity from and fascinate you with the rusty, droopy, and otherwise nondescript objects of the world.  The existence of ordinary objects Eggleston can make you ponder.  If you look into his work, though, you will also find the other side of his experience of his southern background – a profoundly warped existence.  William Eggleston is a photographer from Mississippi who walks the line between “this is my life” and “this is my life?!”  Both sides will capture you.  I hope you will find times to look for God’s presence in nature and art around you, as he has intended (Is. 6:3).