When I took this photo, I was spending some time in Canyonlands National park.  It was September of 2019.

I enjoy the desert and doing photography out there.  The expanse of the sky at night is something to behold.  Its immense size tends to put life into perspective for me that no other thing can.

It reminds me of a few things.

First, it causes me to be reminded of how we are here NOT by accident.  When standing out, say, for example, in the dark of Canyonlands, under the moonless sky, you can see into the Universe so deeply, it's almost unbelievable.  No man made light invades the sky.  It's just you, the silence of the evening, if it's not windy, and God.

It baffles me some how anyone alive could doubt that this was created and put in order by design.  How it can all work together so perfectly, each day, for millions of years.  How anyone could stand under the stars looking up, or photographing them as I have and not be completely convinced that God is there, watching over each of us.  That he created it all, including me, and he is in complete control.

In the photo to the right, I was standing at the Green River Overlook in awe of the stars that night.  The Milky Way Galactic Center rising off the horizon.  So quiet.  Well, mostly, there was some kind of animal lurking around me. I could hear him. It was some kind of canine type beast.  Perhaps coyotes.  

Anyway, photographing the stars, in the desert is an amazing experience, no doubt.  

Today, as I was studying the bible, reading from Psalm 39, I thought about this more.  I thought about my own life and how much I am personally struggling right now.  I have struggled, as most of us have, with fear and worry for so long, it seems likes it remains rooted in my core.  

Even though I have seen many a miracle in my life, it's so easy to forget the great things that have happened, and believe the fear based thoughts which hammer my mind and my conscience day in and day out.  Often, louder than the day before.

I have picked up "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" by Dale Carnegie and am reading it again.  It helps.  

Today, however, in my readings I found some level of comfort, perhaps, better said, a reminder, that this life isn't all about me.  God has it, and I am a fool to think otherwise.

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.

Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.

You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath. 

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it. And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you."

Pslams 39:4-6 NLT

These verses remind me of this fact.  I watch what seems to be everyone around me chasing their tails, working a million hours to make more and more money.  To put more money away for "retirement" to amass money and things.  For what?  

I watch children, our most precious gifts, put aside and under the care of federal institutions like schools and day care, hoping, I guess the state and federal government won't F$@~ them up too much, while we pursue our fame and fortune ceaselessly.  (we have really lost our way as Americans on this issue and our priorities have become incredibly distorted...it really saddens me greatly)

We were laughed at and scorned, even by some in the church for home schooling our children all the way through, and yet, one is in pursuit of a Masters, another a US Marine serving proudly, and the other part of one of the most elite divisions in the entire US Military.

(sorry about the diversion there).

The desert, the milky way, and God's handiwork.  I get why David and the others of lore wrote so often of the stars and the universes and it's humbling properties.

Next Week, I am headed to Death Valley with one of my closest friends and mentors in the photography world.  Gerald Hardage and I will be spending 5 days in the desert getting back to what matters, trying to understand life as it is happening to each of us, and figuring out even more detail about our up and coming photography workshops for 2020.

I need the time to reflect and the time to find some encouragement from the "man upstairs".  I often get that while in the expanse, under the night sky.

I hope you will consider joining me next year.  It might do you good.  :-)