Spiritual Parallels in the Rural and the Urban: A Photographic Essay

The following is a photo essay that I did for the French photography class that I'm currently enrolled in.  Yes, French photography.  That doesn't mean anything except that it is taught in French.  Basically, it's the only way my photogro-phile professor, who works in the French department, could get away with teaching a class on photography.  I was reading the bucket list I made back in 2008 and one of my to-do items is "take better pictures."  So...check?  Obviously I plan on getting better and better, but the mere fact that I'm taking this class should allow me to cross that one off, I think.  

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Spiritual Parallels in the Rural and the Urban

There is no greater solace than nature. It is where I spent my childhood, my adolescence, and where I continue to go for peace, clarity, inspiration, and spiritual renewal.  It is where I feel the closest to my Savior and where His teachings come alive—in overgrown trails, in rocky canyons, and in majestic peaks.  As my travels and schooling bring me often to the city, I have sought reflections of nature in urban life. The following photograph essay contains observations I have made between the rural and the urban, and the spiritual parallels that can be drawn to each. 

[Wisdom] standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths (Proverbs 8:2).

Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths (Psalms 25:4). 

Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established (Proverbs 4:26).

I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto theLord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me (Psalms 142:1-3,7).

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths (Isaiah 2:2,3).