Sometimes one thing leads to another. I happened upon this padlocked gate at the edge of a nearby lake and paused. Oh, the surprises that come to us!
It didn’t take more than a second and then the laughter came in sheer delight as I looked upon this display of light-hearted frivolity.
Someone has a marvelous sense of humor and I had to snap a photo.
I smile every time I look at the cross hatching of chain-link moored to each post, the heavy-chained and keyed padlock securing it, and the Keep Gate Closed sign at the heart of the gate itself.
Of course, one only need to sidestep the structure itself for an easy bypass.
As I reviewed the image of that funny gate, the metaphors started coming in with a recall to several Biblical verses about entering the narrow gate, and Robert Frost’s doubting his neighbor’s need for a fence at all in the poem Mending Wall.
It wasn’t until later when I studied the photo a bit closer that some thoughts came streaming my way in what one might term (don’t sigh)…a flash of light.
Because as I looked again, I saw that the land slopes upward on the other side of the gate into some enormous and beautiful Blue Spruce. Beyond those tall treed giants at the top of the land’s gentle rise (above the left gate post in the photo) bursts a beacon of pure sunlight.
And there was the takeaway.
Beauty cannot be contained behind lock and key, behind authoritarianism or control. It’s as steady and penetrating and free as the rising sun each morning. Philosophers, poets, prophets, and artists throughout the ages, connect beauty with spiritual reality, with the holiness of something sacred. Beauty is a spiritual gift we can depend on and must share, especially upon this tiny and troubled political sphere we call our world.
From my side of the gate to yours,
Thanks for stopping by. ♥