Texas, Our Texas

Austin Skyline viewed from Lady Bird Lake

This weekend my home state seemed even more beautiful than normal. Eric's mom took Bella for the weekend, so Saturday morning we got up early with the baby and went running at Lady Bird Lake (formerly known as Town Lake). The sunrise was absolutely glorious. For the first time I saw a train pass over the bridge across from the Palmer Events Center, so of course I had to snap a picture. The beauty continued all weekend. On Sunday the skies were promising rain, and washing the scenery in a beautiful blue-gray that somehow caused the grass to look greener and made everything look sharper. On the way to get Bella from Eric's mom's house, we passed through several small farming communities. Usually it's nothing but corn as far as the eye can see, but this weekend it was cotton. A field of cotton that is almost ready to be harvested looks like a field of fluffy snow. The plant turns a dark brownish-grey color and the leaves die, it sounds ugly but I find it bewitching. I couldn't help myself, I made Eric stop several times to take pictures, like a tourist.

It's a Train!

I love my home state, but more than that, I love my country. There is amazing beauty in every state I've been to (admittedly I haven't seen them all yet). Eric's mom's family is from Pennsylvania, and if you have never been there, put it on your bucket list. Pennsylvania has some of the most idyllic farmland I've ever seen. It is full of rolling hills covered in lime green grass and pastoral red barns. It has old, small towns filled with churches, schools and homes built hundreds of years before Texas was even a part of the United States, and that kind of history is impressive to me. I also love the mountains in Virginia. Driving through the Appalachians during a rainstorm in Virginia one summer, I saw steam rising from the hills, and it made them appear as if they were alive and breathing. The Pacific Northwest holds incredible natural splendor as well. From enormous waterfalls hidden in vast pine forests, to lush volcanoes and long, rocky beaches, you can really start to feel close to God out there.

Cotton in rows

Even though I haven't been to Pike's Peak, it's no wonder to me that Katherine Lee Bates felt inspired to compose the lyrics to "America The Beautiful". You don't need to travel to Colorado to witness the splendor of creation in America, because it's evident in every state. In times as uncertain as these, I find comfort in the constant beauty that surrounds me, it's like a promise from God of good things to come.

Sunbeams from the heavens

Bella loves the wind in her hair!

More snowy cotton

Moo Cows