Remembering: Beyond all reason
The view from my parents’ room at the Banff Springs Hotel, 1999
“God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.” – Dag Hammarskjold
Update one year later, 11-16-13:
There I go again, letting the quote and photo speak for themselves. I should probably do that more often – we get enough good editorial content in the comments and discussion! But since many of our regular readers may feel as if they have come to know something of my family over the past year, I thought I might take this opportunity to share some of the back story of the photo that went with this post.
In 1999, my parents celebrated their 50th anniversary, and most of the family were able to travel to Banff to help them celebrate. My brother Al, his sons Aaron and Seth, my nieces April and Cami, and April’s husband Jeremiah were all unable to attend, but the rest of the motley crew had a great time being together and enjoying the stunning scenery. I’ll now bore you with a few photos snapped on that very brief but memorable trip – if you’d like to see them, scroll on! The original post with comments from one year ago can be seen here.
Mom and Dad at a garden in Banff
Jeff, Mom, Eric and Carla (in the front seat of the van) heading out to explore.
Mom and Dad enjoy an album of letters and cards from friends who wrote to congratulate them. Carla contacted people they had known over the past 50 years, and worked hard to put together the album. I learned some wonderful things about my parents from those letters, things I had never known!
Carla, Jeff, Andy, George, Sherry, Drew, Mama, Daddy and Ryan at the anniversary dinner.
Eric and I are taking the photos; Matt is to Carla’s left, not visible in the photo.
This post was first published eight years ago today, and re-blogged seven years ago today at the close of my week-long blog anniversary celebration. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
Defeat Despair 
The quote is a perfect reminder to NOT lose the awe we show our Creator! Thank you.
Wonderful family photos.
Yes, that’s one of the dangers of technology– we live continually with a poor facsimile of the actual creation itself. Many years ago I noticed that whatever came directly from God– animals, flowers, fruits, vegetables, woodlands, beaches, other people– was far more often a source of health and relief from stress, whereas anything created by humans– cars, computers, telephones, electric light, artificial additives to food, to name just a few– no matter how convenient and helpful within limits, always had the potential of becoming harmful. Of course there are exceptions to this: natural disasters, and even normal weather conditions– thank God for heated and air conditioned spaces! But in general, most of us don’t get away from “progress” nearly often enough.