Lizzie Allen
The beauty of an honest living
The beauty of an uncommon home
The beauty of community
The beauty of a boundary
The beauty of seclusion
The beauty of handiwork
Context and Application
These six photos are my favorite from my time in Acadia, all taken by my grandfather. At many points in Terry’s essay on Acadia National Park, I found myself envisioning places I had been and things I had seen while in the park, the towering trees, the sheltered carriage roads, the sheer seaside cliffs. I felt like I resonated with her words in a more personal way than I had before, and I was able to connect to the essay in a deeper manner. While there was a lot of family genealogy that honestly blurred together for me, I was also able to appreciate the time and effort that must have gone into discovering all of that information, because my family has done genealogical research and I know that it is no easy task. Between these two things, I felt like this essay is the one that I have connected most with so far.
The context for this photo mini essay is appreciation of the beauty in the small things, the perhaps very unextraordinary things. Terry wrote about the beauty of the park, and I wanted to visualize that for this reflection. I find these photos beautiful, not just for the subjects, but for the meanings behind them. The shack with buoys all over it was likely a fisherman’s home or ‘office’ at some point, and I love how simple it is. The lighthouse is a research station for scientists studying seals and birds (if I remember correctly), and the isolation but dedication to the work touched me. The small flock of puffins was remarkable because I had never seen a puffin in real life before, only ever on my box of cereal growing up, and it felt like I was seeing a mythical animal almost. I appreciated the sheer divide between ocean and land, and the cliffs that formed that divide. We hiked out to that small forest lake, and saw perhaps three other people the whole day, and I very much valued the quiet peace that I felt that day. Lastly, the rock stairs placed alongside a cliff was beautiful because people had taken so much time to make it accessible, and the view once we reached the top felt very worth it.
The professional application that I take away from this essay and my interaction with it is that people can find beauty and connection in almost anything, so it is important to value those experiences and allow space for individual exploration. In a future job in the outdoors, I would like to allow those around me that space with the knowledge that they may come away with an experience much more impactful than I could have led them on.
ORPHE CAPSTONES GATHER NO MOSS 