Rock Splash 2

Feeling scientific today? For a scientific discussion of wave formation and action, click HERE.
Not feeling scientific? Just enjoy the picture and imagine the sound.

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Rock Splash

Every few seconds, a wave crashes against this rock. Some waves are small, some are larger, but this rock endures a perpetual pounding from the sea. Some day far in the future, inevitably, this rock will be worn down and will disappear, adding all its stony fragments to the sands of the sea.

This rock is an obstacle for waves, and that's where the beauty comes from. There would be no splash, crash, or spray if the rock obstacle were absent. I don't like obstacles in my life. But they do keep things interesting, and perhaps they, too, can provide occasions for beauty until that future Day when all obstacles disappear.

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Abandoned House 2

If it's really true--as I assert--that "There is no place where God is not," then God is present even in this empty and abandoned place. And if God is here, God is also shining with persistent warmth in the empty places in our lives.

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Abandoned House

The morning sun shines through the empty living room of an abandoned house near Mt. Angel, Oregon. What people lived here? What joys and sorrows did they experience? What stories could this room tell? Why did they leave and where did they go?

I'll never know the answers to those questions, but it felt good that the sun was pronouncing a benediction on this place. Perhaps its last residents felt that blessing as well.

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Yellow Lines

There are two ways to build a highway. Either you re-shape the earth so that the roadbed is flat, or you allow the road to follow the natural contours of the earth. This highway near Mt. Angel, Oregon, is of the latter variety. There's a place for the first kind of road--when your only interest is speed and time--but it's the second kind of road that creates beauty and allows peace.
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Wire and Grass

I don't often take a photo just because I think it would make a good cross, but this is an exception. With the bright, early morning sun shining on this barbed wire fence and tall grasses, I immediately thought "Cross!", and here is the result. Photo was taken just below Mt. Angel Abbey, but it really could have been taken anywhere in farm country.

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The Original

Overlooking the gravestones of departed nuns at Queen of Angels Monastery (Mt. Angel, Oregon) is this statue of Christ on the cross. Catholics are quite aware of the empty cross and believe just as strongly in resurrection as do Protestants. But the image of Christ on the cross keeps them grounded in the person of Jesus, his suffering love, and his victory--at this very moment, not just on resurrection morning--over the powers of evil and darkness.

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Water Colors 4

Blue sky, green water, and happy little spritzes and sprays on top of the wave.

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Water Colors 3

If you're decorating your bathroom in blue--as my mother always insisted--a framed print of this cross would look quite nice!

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Water Colors 2

Smooth water is dark, but agitated wate--as in whitecaps, waterfalls, and foaming waves--always appears as white. When our eyes see something as white, it means that all the sun's light is being reflected rather than absorbed.

God's light, love and grace are always shining on us, always available. But when our lives are agitated, too busy, too frantic, we have a hard time receiving the light and it bounces off. When we take the time to create quiet and calm, then God's light can penetrate us deeply.

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Water Colors

Ocean water, like all water, has no intrinsic color. Though we know better, we usually think of water as blue because so much of the world's water is outside under a usually blue sky. Swimming pools are usually painted blue on the bottom to enhance this perception.

But I am able to make crosses out of water photos because water reflects its surroundings. Depending on the color of the sky and the angle of the light, water can be red or dark purple or gray or black or blue or green and all shades in between. Moving, spraying, crashing waves create bubbles and foam which show up as white.

This cross, based on an Oregon coast wave, is dependent on the presence of three distinct colors: green, blue, and white.

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Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood, a volcano formed by heat, explosions and magma, is now the home of snow in July, making skiers happy. It's part of a chain of volcanic mountains--Adams, St. Helens, Rainier and others. It would have been interesting to be around--though not too close--when these majestic beauties were formed. Our earth has been a very active place, and it finds ways of reminding us that it is still alive, and that we do not control the universe.

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Dead Tree

It feels good to create something beautiful out of something not beautiful. Perhaps that's the meaning of life.

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A Streak of Red

A streak of red earth, a geological layer different from the rock above and below, a potential cross! As a photographer, I'm always looking for patterns and contrasts. As a maker of crosses, I'm also looking for strong horizontal lines. And again, I wish I had a geologist with me: what's the history of this streak of red along the Oregon coast?

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Manure Spreader

It's been said that church members are like manure: put them all in a pile and they make a stink, but spread them out and they do a lot of good.

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Bonnie's Toes

OK, so this is a little weird. But it does prove that I can create a cross from just about anything. Bonnie is a seminary student who participated with us in our July retreat. On a trip to the Oregon coast, her feet were begging to be photographed, and this is the result.

When you really look at feet--I mean REALLY look--they are not the most beautiful structures. But they are an amazing feat (get it?) of engineering that take an incredible amount of abuse as they support us and get us where we need to go. I think the Architect did quite well!

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Curling Wave 3

I wonder how many thousands of miles this wave traveled before it reached the Oregon coast. Just a modest wave--quite small, really. But I'm glad I was there when it reached its destination.

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Curling Wave 2

Same wave as yesterday! It's fun to see how many different crosses I can make from one photograph.

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Curling Wave

Watching ocean waves is a bit like watching flames in the fireplace--constantly moving, ever-changing, unpredictable, yet ever the same. It's mesmerizing, hypnotic, and perhaps even healing.

The combination of predicability and unpredictability is like life. There are patterns that can be generally anticipated, but the details are always surprising.

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Crow

We were eating a picnic lunch by a beach on the Oregon coast when Mr. Crow showed up. It looks like he's posing for a picture, but actually he has learned that where people are, there is food. So he's just doing what crows do best--scavenge for bits and pieces of what others leave behind.

We all knows that crows are black, right?. But in the bright sunlight, the feathers are actually an iridescent gray with just a hint of blue. As Yogi Berra supposedly said, "You can observe a lot by just looking."

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Wall Hanging

This is a wall hanging in the chapel of Queen of Angels Monastery, Mt. Angel, Oregon. The round shape and light central colors suggest the moment of creation, the Big Bang, "and there was light!"

I don't understand why some Christians feel that the Big Bang theory stands against the creation story. The Big Bang theory only describes HOW it happened, the PROCESS. It does not attempt to speak to WHO caused it, which is the main point of the Genesis account.

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Organ Pipes 4

All through the month of July, I kept wondering what this organ is capable of. It's usually played SO quietly to accompany the chanting of Psalms. But I wished at times for a guest organist to arrive who would let out all the stops and make the building shake with some boisterous and booming Bach.

It's good for people to be quiet. We need more of it. But once in a while, just to stay balanced, we need to let loose with all we've got, with all we are.

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Organ Pipes 3

Did you ever wonder why all musical notes (at least in Western culture) are exactly a "half-step" apart, and why any deviation from that sounds simply awful to our ears? Organ pipes and piano keys and violin strings are all tuned in extremely precise mathematical patterns and relationships. Among many other attribues, I'm sure God is a mathematician!

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Organ Pipes 2

Most organs get used once a week. This one gets used 5 times a day, as often as the Benedictine nuns gather for worship at Queen of Angels Monastery, Mt. Angel, Oregon.

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Organ Pipes 1

This organ not only sounds beautiful, but the pipes--in their blue, ivory and gold--are visually stunning as well. Most of the time, this organ is played VERY quietly, as accompaniment to the psalm-chanting of 40 Benedictine nuns at Queen of Angels Monastery, Mt. Angel, Oregon.

As you can guess from today's title, I'm going to do a short "organ pipes" series.

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